Tesseraction
by roseriddle4444
Summary: “Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act, between the desire and the spasm, between the potency and the existence, between the essence and the descent, falls the shadow. This is the way the world ends."—T.S. Eliot
1. Sorry

Well, it's been a while, but I managed to write another story. "Sorry" is by Buckcherry. I love that song. It made me want to cry.

* * *

Prologue: Sorry

"_You know that thing we put on the pin? Well, it's time to take it off the pin," Carol said, patting Ross' hand._

_Ken and Pearl Dulcibella Ceinwen Love Sayen Dawn Reid were crying on the sofa._

"_That's so sad!" Sayen sobbed._

"_Ross must be feeling so awful!"_

"_I meant the fact that the show portrays homosexuality like it's some sort of disease. But I guess the scene is sad too. I mean, the music makes me want to cry," Sayen went off on a political tangent and stopped crying immediately to do so._

"_It doesn't _make_ you want to cry," Ken said, mostly to shut her up. "It _has_ made you cry."_

"_You're so brave," Sayen said suddenly, half an hour later._

"_Why?" Ken looked away._

"_You take action subtly so that you don't step on toes while you're getting a job done. And I've gotta give you the intro to my friends soon. I'm kinda high on sugar right now. I probably shouldn't have ingested so much caffeine. I wonder why I'm so random. Are you thinking the same thing? I like guys who get things. Sorry, I usually don't use so many words to say so little, you know what I mean?" Sayen shoved a fistful of popcorn into her mouth to stop herself from saying something even more embarrassing._

"_I understand," Ken patted Sayen's back firmly, but not hard. "I am."_

"_What?" Sayen looked at him incredulously._

"_Yours. As long as you'll have me."_

_They kissed._

"Where the hell is he!" Sayen shrieked.

"He's here," Mara wheeled the boy to her. "I know how close you two were, so get it done quickly before Jaunie comes up with the death certificate. She's already gone for it, but you still have time before she comes back and you can come up with a lie in that time, I hope!"

Sayen didn't know how to initiate a spell, so she just aimed the Light scepter at him and thought as hard as she could about bringing Ken back to life. She succeeded right before her eyes rolled back into her head and the floor was suddenly next to her ear. Mara would have to come up with the lie this time. ****

Sayen's eyelids fluttered open. When she saw Callia's disapproving form in front of her, she slowly sat up and realized she was on a hospital bed with a blanket draped over her. Varda was standing next to Callia, looking at her nervously.

"You brought Ken back to life," Callia said accusingly.

"Yes I did," Sayen held her head up high. She didn't particularly care what Callia thought.

"Congratulations. You've successfully bought about the single-handed destruction of the universe," Callia glared.

"What?" Sayen stood up, no longer trying to be funny. She just wanted to make everything right again.

"You went against nature. The energy should've killed you! Instead, you get off scot-free and Ken just ends up in pain," Callia sounded like she was disappointed. "That's just great. Real selfless there, Sayen."

"What do you mean, in pain? He's hurting? How badly?"

"Pretty badly," Callia nodded to emphasize her words.

"I didn't mean to," Sayen shook her head as if that would make it all better. "I just wanted-"

"Oh, you wanted something! Newsflash, Sayen! You don't often get everything you want in life!" Callia practically snarled.

"I never have gotten anything I really wanted! Every time I go to a party wanting to have fun, it turns out to be a complete disaster! Every time I want to do something, some other thing always comes up and I can't do that thing anymore!" Sayen was nearly screaming.

Callia blinked. "You need to work on controlling your temper," she said evenly.

Varda turned heel and walked out, unable to stand the fighting. She opened it to find a badly burned body in a room with a huge tower-like thing in the middle and lights coming from the floor, which made odd beeping sounds like it welcomed the stranger. "Oh, hell," she muttered. "It's started already anyway." She banged her hand on the rails that extended to either side of the ramp that led up to level ground around the tower. A faint groan kept her from going out, and she went toward the sound with a look of curiosity. What she saw made her heart stop.

_Dear Sayen's Diary,_

_Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated, as you may have heard by now. There's this sort of throbbing all over my body. Callia was in earlier and said that that was because Sayen was both the Light and the Wind, and that means that she has two conflicting elements inside her. I'm still the Light, in some respects, so I guess that means I feel the split. Anyway, there's a boy outside my room whom everyone seems to recognize (Varda is swooning over him) except me, as usual._

_They're saying they have to kill me, that Sayen may have killed herself bringing me back. If I have to die so that she lives, I'm perfectly fine with that. But Callia's saying it's too late. If Sayen were alive, she would have visited me by now, right? Gosh, I feel terrible for having killed her. I'll never do it again, that's for sure!_

_At least I sill have Sayen's diary. Varda's saying that I should record my last thoughts to calm myself down before I die, and to basically write goodbyes for everyone else so that they calm down before I die. Sayen, you've been a lovely girl. If you hadn't rescued me so many years ago, I wouldn't even have live this long. Varda, you're amazing, always knowing what to do. Callia, you're the strongest woman I know, and don t lose that! Mara, you are a great leader and you have a lot of courage. Calix, you aren't as narcissistic as before. I think you have a real chance of scoring (so to speak) with Sayen now. Eddie, you gave me enough inspirational ideas to give Varda a run for her money! And Sam, you were a great best friend. If you forget about me, I will haunt you until you die! Alright, they're calling me, so goodbye!_

Next time on Tesseraction:

"Can I call you 'Bela,' since you're not gonna tell me your name?" Varda asked.

The man looked at her in surprise. "Are you a psychiatrist?"

"Didn't take long for you to catch on, did it? And yes, I am. Don't freak about my age, okay, Bela?" she looked at him as if afraid she offended him somehow.

"I'm alright," Bela said lightly.

"We both know that's gonna be the understatement of the century. I may not know what just happened very well, but I know what it means when someone reacts like you are right now to everything. And I know it well," Varda said. "You need a distraction. Unfortunately, there are very few things we can do if we can't go through a door."

* * *


	2. Leave Me Alone I'm Lonely

"Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)" is by Pink. I figured it was the perfect song because here, everyone's trying to be a brave and everything, even though they're scared.

* * *

Chapter I: Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)

"Doctor?" Varda looked at the bloody man before her.

In response, the man burst into a flash of light. A completely different man panted in front of her. Varda ran a hand through her hair and sighed like she was a lost puppy, although she knew exactly what who the man was. Endless conversations with a boyfriend obsessed with sci-fi couldn't drive her wrong.

"Well, I guess I have to explain first, since this whole universes-melting-together thing is partly my fault," she began.

"Universes melting together?" the man looked confused as much as he felt glad for the distraction.

Varda looked up at the ceiling. "Let me explain," she said, tired. ****

"Kill him," the man said indifferently. He got up and began to pace.

"That's not so simple, and you know it," she said in response.

"What else can we do?" the man whirled around and gestured violently with his hands.

"We can freeze his body. There's always a loophole. Nothing can ever be perfect, not even Nature," Varda said. "We can freeze his body until we find a way to fly into that loophole."

"Fine, but kill him first, and by first, I mean now," the Doctor said.

"You're used to giving orders," Varda raised an eyebrow.

"Yes I am," the Doctor's eyes darkened until Varda could no longer see them. She turned and opened the Tardis door. Then she frowned and motioned for the Doctor to join her. He frowned.

"I didn't move us anywhere," he said.

"I know you didn't. This is a tesseract," she said, indicating.

"Shall we?" the Doctor raised his arm. "And do you know where we are, by any chance?"

"We're in the week before the Titanic disaster," Varda said. "Can I call you 'Bela,' since you're not gonna tell me your name?'

The man looked at her in surprise. "Are you a psychiatrist?"

"Didn't take long for you to catch on, did it? And yes, I am. Don't freak about my age, okay, Bela?" she looked at him as if afraid she offended him somehow.

"I'm alright," Bela said lightly.

"We both know that's gonna be the understatement of the century. I may not know what just happened very well, but I know what it means when someone reacts like you are right now to everything. And I know it well," Varda said. "You need a distraction. Unfortunately, there are very few things we can do if we can't go through a door." ****

"Varda just fell through the floor," Sayen pointed out the window on the door with a shaking hand.

Callia turned, startled. She looked lost, and Sayen was afraid.

"What do we do now?" she asked, panicking.

Callia pulled out her phone. "Sam?" she asked. "I need you to kill Ken. Well, if you don't, the universe blows itself up!" ****

"We just saved a family from the Titanic disaster," Varda sounded very awed as she clutched Bela's arm. She could barely breathe, let alone walk, in the corset by herself.

"It was amazing, wasn't it?" Bela smiled smugly.

"Yes," Varda let to tip of her head touch his bicep. "But next time, can we go somewhere where I don't have to wear silk?" Varda touched her blue silk dress with Russian trim. "I feel disgusting, like I'm wearing human skin."

"Duly noted," Bela looked at Varda with a touch of respect. Varda smiled shyly and ducked her head down. "Do me a favor. Don't act like you think you don't deserve to live."

"I don't think I don't deserve to live. I know I don't deserve to live. I'm just alive because all my suicide attempts make me feel even worse about my failures," Varda said, eyes downcast.

"Don't," Bela sounded slightly panicky. Varda reminded herself that he wasn't going to be happy with the thought of betrayal for a while.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything," Varda looked down again.

"Don't apologize," Bela sounded impatient.

"Sucks for you, because more than a quarter of my daily language is made up of apologies," Varda smiled wryly.

"Well, it's going to be up to me to help you get a fix of self-esteem. Where the hell are we?" he demanded suddenly. He opened the Tardis door to reveal a man who was getting roused awake by noise.

"Oh, crap," Varda covered her face.

The now-wide awake man was Andres Hansen. ****

"We have to do something about this, mess," Callia said. The first time she opened the door, she had walked into the Tardis. The second time, she lied glibly to get Luna, Remus, Hermione, and Ginny inside. This time, she found herself in an apartment in New York, judging from the street noises from the window. And if there was any place that it was unanimously decided to avoid, it was the Big Apple.

Speaking of apples, a large chunk of one fell out of Ben Sheffield's gaping mouth. Henry Gibson picked it up.

"Who are you?" the latter asked casually.

"I could ask you the same question," Callia shot back.

"I'm Sayen Reid, this is my ex-sister Calantha, formerly known as Calanthe, and I know that this information will not travel to where it could potentially harm her existence, Henry and Ben," Sayen said, hopping gracefully from the Tardis entrance.

"You're not Doctor-bloody-Who," said Ben.

"Trust you to say something I can't make heads or tails of," Sayen retorted rather petulantly.

Callia and Ben, both sci-fi freaks, went into a long rant about said television show.

"Trust them," Sayen muttered as she took Henry's hand and led him inside. She closed the door and opened it again.

"I've been stalked before, but this certainly takes the cake," Andres said reflectively over a hot cup of tea.

"Is this jasmine?" Varda asked casually.

"Yes," Andres was taken aback by her question. It seemed so normal in situations that were so obviously the opposite that it was no longer considered a normal question.

"Good. I like jasmine," Varda poured a ton of sugar into it.

"Whoa, steady there," Sayen said, walking inside. "Have some tea with your sugar."

The whole room laughed. Tension, even over stalkers, dissipated. That allowed Callia and Varda to fill in the blanks for everyone about the causes of the tesseract. Henry, Hermione, and Bela helped tell the story of what it did.

"In conclusion, you should all be very careful when you open doors. If there are people, let them in and when this is all over, nobody will believe them anyway," Bela said.

"Got it, Doc-Boy," Sayen smirked. Bela glared at her. She chuckled.

"First step, is Ken dead yet? I shouldn't have closed the door," Callia grumbled as she opened it again.

Andres dropped his teacup when he saw the blonde dumpling. She was sitting at a desk doing homework or something.

"Um, who the hell are you?" she asked when she could speak again.

"I could ask you the same question," Sayen smirked, grasping Luna's hand in one of hers and waving lazily with the other.

"Lauren," Lauren seemed to blush at her own name.

"Okay, Lauren. Kindly enter this room," Varda said.

"Why?" Lauren was just a tiny bit suspicious.

"There's someone staring at you, thinking very dirty thoughts, and he's the guy who hasn't reacted to the fact that there's a puddle of boiling hot tea on his foot," Varda said.

Only then did Andres look down and give a holler.

Lauren and Sayen looked at Varda very curiously, especially at the fact that she was wearing an unreadable expression.

"How did you know that?" Sayen asked.

Varda's eyes rolled back into her head and she fell backward. Callia caught her with a startled cry.

"What's wrong with her?" Sayen demanded as Bela put her in a tube.

"There's too much brain activity. There shouldn't be that many thoughts per minute in any human without overheating," he said. "Does she have any abilities I don't know about, especially psychicness?"

"She's part dragon," Callia said with a snap of her fingers.

"She's a Morpher?" Bela looked frightened. "Ordinary human bodies aren't designed for that sort of stress."

"With all due respect, Varda isn't an ordinary human. She's got an IQ to rival yours," Callia said, following him into another room (luckily, it had no door.)

"I understood that the moment I heard she's part dragon," Bela said, openly mocking Sayen. To Sayen's credit, she understood the gravity of the situation well enough to not bristle.

"What do we do?" was all she said.

"We have to get her to give her power to someone else. Someone who can better withstand the splitting," said Bela, carrying the girl effortlessly onto a gurney.

"Give it to me. I'm used to being conflicted," Sayen said, grabbing the items Bela pointed.

"I don't think you know what that entails," Callia said, doing the same thing. "What Varda's feeling is like being on ecstasy. And trust me, I know all about it."

"I can take it better than her," Sayen nodded to the still girl on the bed. "I can't feel pain."

"You overheat more easily than her," Callia argued.

"She's very smart and could figure out another situation, whereas I can't," Sayen said.

Callia gave her armful of objects to Bela and leaned with her wrist against the wall. "Give it to her," she told Bela with a jerk of her chin in Sayen's direction.

"I was going to do it to myself, but she'll do," Bela only hesitated a single moment, which made Sayen slightly afraid. ****

"How do you feel?" Callia's voice was faraway, and Varda's vision was blurry. It quickly cleared enough, however, for her to see Sayen lying lifeless beside her. She screamed.

"Sorry. I should've warned you first that there's a comatose girl next to you," Bela nodded.

"No problem. With all the stuff I felt going on in your head, I'm surprised you don't forget more," Varda stifled a yawn. "Anyway, you want to siphon her psychic energy somewhere else, like a machine. A machine will not only get a consciousness, but it'll contain a very powerful force in the universe."

"You're psychic normally, aren't you?" Bela asked.

"No. Callia was mouthing what she wanted. I just stopped listening to your pointless blather and focused on her," Varda shrugged.

Bela was about to say something, but he snapped his mouth shut in favor of helping Callia with taking a panel off the Tardis. "How do we siphon the energy out of her?"

"Um, you'll want to ask her," Varda nodded helplessly at Sayen.

"She's too asleep," Bela said.

"No, duh. But you're not a human. I know you can kinda get in her head. So do that and ask her," Varda said like it was more obvious than Bela's previous statement. And then there was a bleeping sound.

Chapter I: Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)

"Doctor?" Varda looked at the bloody man before her.

In response, the man burst into a flash of light. A completely different man panted in front of her. Varda ran a hand through her hair and sighed like she was a lost puppy, although she knew exactly what who the man was. Endless conversations with a boyfriend obsessed with sci-fi couldn't drive her wrong.

"Well, I guess I have to explain first, since this whole universes-melting-together thing is partly my fault," she began.

"Universes melting together?" the man looked confused as much as he felt glad for the distraction.

Varda looked up at the ceiling. "Let me explain," she said, tired. ****

"Kill him," the man said indifferently. He got up and began to pace.

"That's not so simple, and you know it," she said in response.

"What else can we do?" the man whirled around and gestured violently with his hands.

"We can freeze his body. There's always a loophole. Nothing can ever be perfect, not even Nature," Varda said. "We can freeze his body until we find a way to fly into that loophole."

"Fine, but kill him first, and by first, I mean now," the Doctor said.

"You're used to giving orders," Varda raised an eyebrow.

"Yes I am," the Doctor's eyes darkened until Varda could no longer see them. She turned and opened the Tardis door. Then she frowned and motioned for the Doctor to join her. He frowned.

"I didn't move us anywhere," he said.

"I know you didn't. This is a tesseract," she said, indicating.

"Shall we?" the Doctor raised his arm. "And do you know where we are, by any chance?"

"We're in the week before the Titanic disaster," Varda said. "Can I call you 'Bela,' since you're not gonna tell me your name?'

The man looked at her in surprise. "Are you a psychiatrist?"

"Didn't take long for you to catch on, did it? And yes, I am. Don't freak about my age, okay, Bela?" she looked at him as if afraid she offended him somehow.

"I'm alright," Bela said lightly.

"We both know that's gonna be the understatement of the century. I may not know what just happened very well, but I know what it means when someone reacts like you are right now to everything. And I know it well," Varda said. "You need a distraction. Unfortunately, there are very few things we can do if we can't go through a door." ****

"Varda just fell through the floor," Sayen pointed out the window on the door with a shaking hand.

Callia turned, startled. She looked lost, and Sayen was afraid.

"What do we do now?" she asked, panicking.

Callia pulled out her phone. "Sam?" she asked. "I need you to kill Ken. Well, if you don't, the universe blows itself up!" ****

"We just saved a family from the Titanic disaster," Varda sounded very awed as she clutched Bela's arm. She could barely breathe, let alone walk, in the corset by herself.

"It was amazing, wasn't it?" Bela smiled smugly.

"Yes," Varda let to tip of her head touch his bicep. "But next time, can we go somewhere where I don't have to wear silk?" Varda touched her blue silk dress with Russian trim. "I feel disgusting, like I'm wearing human skin."

"Duly noted," Bela looked at Varda with a touch of respect. Varda smiled shyly and ducked her head down. "Do me a favor. Don't act like you think you don't deserve to live."

"I don't think I don't deserve to live. I know I don't deserve to live. I'm just alive because all my suicide attempts make me feel even worse about my failures," Varda said, eyes downcast.

"Don't," Bela sounded slightly panicky. Varda reminded herself that he wasn't going to be happy with the thought of betrayal for a while.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything," Varda looked down again.

"Don't apologize," Bela sounded impatient.

"Sucks for you, because more than a quarter of my daily language is made up of apologies," Varda smiled wryly.

"Well, it's going to be up to me to help you get a fix of self-esteem. Where the hell are we?" he demanded suddenly. He opened the Tardis door to reveal a man who was getting roused awake by noise.

"Oh, crap," Varda covered her face.

The now-wide awake man was Andres Hansen. ****

"We have to do something about this, mess," Callia said. The first time she opened the door, she had walked into the Tardis. The second time, she lied glibly to get Luna, Remus, Hermione, and Ginny inside. This time, she found herself in an apartment in New York, judging from the street noises from the window. And if there was any place that it was unanimously decided to avoid, it was the Big Apple.

Speaking of apples, a large chunk of one fell out of Ben Sheffield's gaping mouth. Henry Gibson picked it up.

"Who are you?" the latter asked casually.

"I could ask you the same question," Callia shot back.

"I'm Sayen Reid, this is my ex-sister Calantha, formerly known as Calanthe, and I know that this information will not travel to where it could potentially harm her existence, Henry and Ben," Sayen said, hopping gracefully from the Tardis entrance.

"You're not Doctor-bloody-Who," said Ben.

"Trust you to say something I can't make heads or tails of," Sayen retorted rather petulantly.

Callia and Ben, both sci-fi freaks, went into a long rant about said television show.

"Trust them," Sayen muttered as she took Henry's hand and led him inside. She closed the door and opened it again.

"I've been stalked before, but this certainly takes the cake," Andres said reflectively over a hot cup of tea.

"Is this jasmine?" Varda asked casually.

"Yes," Andres was taken aback by her question. It seemed so normal in situations that were so obviously the opposite that it was no longer considered a normal question.

"Good. I like jasmine," Varda poured a ton of sugar into it.

"Whoa, steady there," Sayen said, walking inside. "Have some tea with your sugar."

The whole room laughed. Tension, even over stalkers, dissipated. That allowed Callia and Varda to fill in the blanks for everyone about the causes of the tesseract. Henry, Hermione, and Bela helped tell the story of what it did.

"In conclusion, you should all be very careful when you open doors. If there are people, let them in and when this is all over, nobody will believe them anyway," Bela said.

"Got it, Doc-Boy," Sayen smirked. Bela glared at her. She chuckled.

"First step, is Ken dead yet? I shouldn't have closed the door," Callia grumbled as she opened it again.

Andres dropped his teacup when he saw the blonde dumpling. She was sitting at a desk doing homework or something.

"Um, who the hell are you?" she asked when she could speak again.

"I could ask you the same question," Sayen smirked, grasping Luna's hand in one of hers and waving lazily with the other.

"Lauren," Lauren seemed to blush at her own name.

"Okay, Lauren. Kindly enter this room," Varda said.

"Why?" Lauren was just a tiny bit suspicious.

"There's someone staring at you, thinking very dirty thoughts, and he's the guy who hasn't reacted to the fact that there's a puddle of boiling hot tea on his foot," Varda said.

Only then did Andres look down and give a holler.

Lauren and Sayen looked at Varda very curiously, especially at the fact that she was wearing an unreadable expression.

"How did you know that?" Sayen asked.

Varda's eyes rolled back into her head and she fell backward. Callia caught her with a startled cry.

"What's wrong with her?" Sayen demanded as Bela put her in a tube.

"There's too much brain activity. There shouldn't be that many thoughts per minute in any human without overheating," he said. "Does she have any abilities I don't know about, especially psychicness?"

"She's part dragon," Callia said with a snap of her fingers.

"She's a Morpher?" Bela looked frightened. "Ordinary human bodies aren't designed for that sort of stress."

"With all due respect, Varda isn't an ordinary human. She's got an IQ to rival yours," Callia said, following him into another room (luckily, it had no door.)

"I understood that the moment I heard she's part dragon," Bela said, openly mocking Sayen. To Sayen's credit, she understood the gravity of the situation well enough to not bristle.

"What do we do?" was all she said.

"We have to get her to give her power to someone else. Someone who can better withstand the splitting," said Bela, carrying the girl effortlessly onto a gurney.

"Give it to me. I'm used to being conflicted," Sayen said, grabbing the items Bela pointed.

"I don't think you know what that entails," Callia said, doing the same thing. "What Varda's feeling is like being on ecstasy. And trust me, I know all about it."

"I can take it better than her," Sayen nodded to the still girl on the bed. "I can't feel pain."

"You overheat more easily than her," Callia argued.

"She's very smart and could figure out another situation, whereas I can't," Sayen said.

Callia gave her armful of objects to Bela and leaned with her wrist against the wall. "Give it to her," she told Bela with a jerk of her chin in Sayen's direction.

"I was going to do it to myself, but she'll do," Bela only hesitated a single moment, which made Sayen slightly afraid. ****

"How do you feel?" Callia's voice was faraway, and Varda's vision was blurry. It quickly cleared enough, however, for her to see Sayen lying lifeless beside her. She screamed.

"Sorry. I should've warned you first that there's a comatose girl next to you," Bela nodded.

"No problem. With all the stuff I felt going on in your head, I'm surprised you don't forget more," Varda stifled a yawn. "Anyway, you want to siphon her psychic energy somewhere else, like a machine. A machine will not only get a consciousness, but it'll contain a very powerful force in the universe."

"You're psychic normally, aren't you?" Bela asked.

"No. Callia was mouthing what she wanted. I just stopped listening to your pointless blather and focused on her," Varda shrugged.

Bela was about to say something, but he snapped his mouth shut in favor of helping Callia with taking a panel off the Tardis. "How do we siphon the energy out of her?"

"Um, you'll want to ask her," Varda nodded helplessly at Sayen.

"She's too asleep," Bela said.

"No, duh. But you're not a human. I know you can kinda get in her head. So do that and ask her," Varda said like it was more obvious than Bela's previous statement. And then there was a bleeping sound.

* * *

Next time on Tesseraction:

_"Calanthe, I have something to say," Aaron had picked this time specifically because she couldn't make a scene. He hated scenes. "I wanted to come clean. I saw Hayley this weekend."_

_"How far did it go?" Callie's voice was small._

_"We went all the way. She's pregnant."_

_Five seconds later, Aaron had been whipped repeatedly with his own rose bouquet and pushed out the window._


	3. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" is by Cyndi Lauper. I picked it because the girls are running around, doing whatever they want to, and they get into trouble for it. The song Sayen sings is called "Dreams of the Sleeping Birds," and it's written by Amy F. Bernon. I sang it in choir during 8th grade. Enjoy and R&R!

* * *

Chapter II: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

"Her mind is on the verge of splitting," Bela said. "There's going to be more junk floating around than even I can usually manage, and there are 8 of me."

"So? You find you way through the junk. She's probably afraid, Bela, and all alone. You want to talk to her," Varda said. "But I'm gonna warn you…the moment your heads touch, all your memories are going to be available to her and vice versa. You have to be willing to take that risk."

"We'll save the world," Bela said in a surprisingly small voice.

"We'll save the universe," Varda said with a haughty lift of her chin.

Bela sighed and let his forehead make contact with Sayen's. There was the feeling of leaving his body, landing on the ground, yet not actually landing on the ground. Everything had that surreal quality dreams are made of.

"Sayen?" he hollered. There were several hurricanes going on at once. People were screaming, dust was blinding his eyes, and he had to watch his step because there were sporadic bursts of flame from the ground. "Sayen Reid, I will not call you again! Answer me!"

"Yeah?" asked a voice, cool as you please. Sayen stood with a perfectly natural expression. The only part of her showing evidence of what she could see, had seen, and was seeing was the wind-blown look to her hair. Well, and the fact that she was shivering uncontrollably.

"How do we siphon your psychic energy to the Tardis?" Bela asked.

"I need someone who knows how to open their mind to pass the energy on," Sayen shivered. "I'm holding onto it really tight right now," and I can make it go. You just need to put my body near where you want the energy to go," she said slowly.

"I will. Does it hurt?" he had to ask.

"No more than it should," she said. "I don't mind," she shrugged. "I kinda like it, actually. It's new."

Bela got the creeps, standing here talking to a girl who was acting all the wrong ways. "I'm gonna leave. Try not to go insane."

"I'm no more insane than you are," she crossed her arms in front of her chest in a pouty gesture.

Bela smiled at the gesture of normalcy before he turned, ready to join the other women. But he realized he had no way of actually leaving. Usually, there was enough calm and peace to allow himself to think about getting back into his body. This time, there enough noise to make him forcibly aware of his spirit self. He turned back to Sayen, but she was walking off and singing a song.

"She cries at night when the day is done.

She fears what night may bring.

She cries for those who have never loved

And for those who never sing."

The last thing Bela saw was Sayen's spirit self looking at him leave, surprise evident on her face.

"How'd it go?" Callia asked.

"I think I might need to go back. There's more chaos in there than even I can handle," said Bela.

"Repressive Memory Syndrome in the extreme," Varda sighed. "I've hooked her up to an EEG machine and the readings are off the charts. I'm afraid her brain might actually explode."

"Cool," Andres said, putting popcorn in his mouth.

Varda shot him a dirty look. "I'm not even kidding."

"How do we save her?" Andres looked at Bela expectantly.

"We lay her so that her head is touching the Tardis. Then we need someone to tell her to release her knowledge so that she can do it even in her sleep," Bela said.

"That'll be me," Varda nodded sagely. "I may not have known her the longest, but I know her the best."

"**I** know her best," Callia flew up and in Varda's face.

Varda opened her mouth to let loose some nasty retort when Henry stepped between them and held up his hands in a mature sign of peace.

"Can't we just all get along?" he said, sounding quite petulant.

Varda make mousy sounds of joy as she hugged him. Henry looked around, very surprised and awkwardly aroused. He also put his arms around her, patting her back. Varda let go.

"Now that we've established that the psychologist is right," Henry said, "let's place Sayen's body where it needs to be."

The group left a huffy Callia in the room by herself. ****

Sayen found Varda, Bela, and Henry (although he was there mostly for Varda) talking in hushed tones when she woke. "Hello," she said for lack of anything else to say.

"Hello," the rest of them were equally at a loss.

"How are we on ways to get back home?" she removed the flowery blanket above her and immediately regretted it; the cold air hit her hard.

"Not very far, but we did get this letter," Bela took out the envelope from one of the pockets in his jacket. "It's addressed to you."

Sayen took it with an exhausted sigh like she was tired of life.

"How can I help?" Varda asked immediately.

"I don't know why Callia didn't stay to make sure I was okay. I know it's unfair that she has all this responsibility, but a girl wants to know she's loved every once and a while."

"Read the letter. It might help take your mind off things," Varda said, indicating the piece of paper with her chin.

"Dear Sayen,

I hope you don't think I'm just going to let you kill my daughter and not retaliate. I realized what you must have done the moment I stepped into the bathroom this morning. The banishing curse you placed upon me only works because Nature lets it work. Now that you have utterly screwed Nature over, I can eat eggplant whenever I wish. I believe congratulations are in order. You became like me, using Magick illegally. I must also thank you for giving me hope. I am, after all, only human.

-Cailean."

"Jerk," Sayen crumpled the letter and threw it at the wall.

"Why would he emphasize eggplant so much? It seems deliberate. It's very out of character for him," Varda said, lifting her head.

"It probably was. Who do we know who grows eggplants?" Sayen asked. "Or maybe it's their favorite food."

"Doesn't Jaunie have a garden in her backyard? Let's go visit her," Varda said. She walked to what she thought was the front door to the Tardis, opened it, and stepped into a steaming shower. Slim, trim Emily and Varda screamed at the same time. Then a man yawned and opened the door. Yadid Tennant.

Callia smacked her own forehead. She didn't want to be around when the chaos would break loose. ****

"Okay, so we've established that we are not insane stalkers like that one woman, Nancy Something-or-Other. Anyway, Emily, I'm Varda, this is Sayen, that's Bela, he's Andres, she's Lauren, Miss Frown-Face is Callia, Computer Geek is Henry, and Guitar Boy is Ben. Mr. Tennant, keep your eyes off Emily for five seconds and tell me if either of you have gotten a letter in the last two days."

"Are we looking for a specific letter, because you can have all the fan mail I've gotten within the last year and a half, if you want," said Yadid.

"That'd be a waste of my time. I meant a letter from this address," Varda picked it up.

"What if we could go to that address and there's a garden behind it. I know it sounds farfetched, but what if there are eggplants in that garden?" Sayen jumped up.

"I don't know," Bela frowned. "There's a lot of ifs in that sentence, and I don't know if the Tardis can take us-"

"Call her Belinda. The Tardis sounds like some supercomputer that there are 70 of. Belinda's different," Sayen patted the wall affectionately and received a blast of ticklish air. She giggled.

"She likes it," Callia smiled.

Sayen was startled. She had never seen Callia smile like that before. As a matter of fact, she had never seen Callia smile before. No, wait, yes she had.

"_Aaron?" Callie opened the window and smiled widely at the boy in front of her. "What are you doing here?"_

"_Is a boy not allowed to give a girl flowers at any time?"_

"_Come in!" she opened the window as wide as it could go and a boy climbed in. When they started kissing, Pearlie pulled away from the door._

"_What, red roses? You've never given me red ones before," Callie inhaled. "Mm, but I like them a lot, though."_

"_Calanthe, I have something to say," Aaron had picked this time specifically because she couldn't make a scene. He hated scenes. "I wanted to come clean. I saw Hayley this weekend."_

"_How far did it go?" Callie's voice was small._

"_We went all the way. She's pregnant."_

_Five seconds later, Aaron had been whipped repeatedly with his own rose bouquet and pushed out the window._

Sayen decided quickly that Callia smiling meant she shouldn't have to be hurt again for the next 24 hours. "I'm surprised **you** like it," oops, she shouldn't have just blurted it out.

If Callia was hurt, she didn't show it. Instead, she leaned against the pillar and whispered, "Belinda, can you take us to 3724, Arbuckle Drive, San Jose, 95124?"

A series of beeps followed and there were the groaning sounds of a dying cow. When they subsided, Varda opened the door. "Bingo," she cheered under her breath. And after Bela unlocked the gate to the backyard, there was a single ripe eggplant.

"There appears to be a piece of paper under it," Varda pointed. Sayen reached down while Callia and Ben lifted the eggplant to make it easier. Sayen stood up, brushed the remains of the sandy soil away from the paper, unfolded the paper, and began to read it.

"Excuse me," said Yadid. "I'm no gardener and I know all the miracles a green thumb can make, but isn't it rather difficult to grow something in soil this dry?"

"Yadid, you just took a ride on a time machine that isn't supposed to exist. You think soil can't be manipulated?" Sayen's tart tongue actually made Yadid recoil.

Emily patted his shoulder. "I'm sure she's just stressed." Yadid moved in closer to her hand without thinking.

"What the hell is any of this?" Sayen scowled as she passed the letter to Varda.

"I know who have the codes you are going to need to seal the doors to the universes. There is one for each universe you have violated. Mine is Cui. Each person has one code. Get to them before I do. Good luck, you'll need it."

"Cui? Coralie Cui?" Sayen recalled the sassy flute player she had sat next to in middle school "We better get to her." ****

With her wealth of dark hair pulled back from her young face, Coralie looked anything but like she had one of the keys to saving the entire Multiverse, or at least one universe.

"I got a letter yesterday. Do any of you want red tea? I won't put in milk if you're allergic," she said from the kitchen.

"No thanks. I'm a coffee/cocoa person. Just tell me what the letter said, please," Sayen raised a glass bottle of Starbucks to her lips.

"You are the last person who should be having coffee," Varda shook her head. "You're short and hyper when you've had brandy."

* * *

Next time on Tesseraction:

"Okay," said Hermione. "I have 12-1-8-13, and we all know what that means."

"No we don't," said Ginny.


	4. Innocence

"Innocence" is by Avril Lavigne. I picked it because a lot of you will be naive, see Catalina and Sayen talk about Cat having sex with Ella, and assume that's sick or wrong. So let me destroy your carefully-wrought existence:

HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT A MENTAL DISEASE!

Thank you for reading.

* * *

Chapter III: Innocence

"Brandy? Sayen, you've drank before?" Callia's eyes were blazing.

"No, she hasn't," Varda said hastily. "I said it as more of a metaphor about how she's so talkative and hyper and doesn't…know…when…to…yeah, stop," she looked down.

"It better be," Callia glared at Sayen before sitting and hearing the squelch of her shirt. Sometime in the middle of her tantrum, she had spilled tea down her front.

"Anyway, the letter said '!-!-*-!#' and that's all it said," Coralie sipped her Darjeeling.

"What does that mean?" Ben asked the most obvious question.

"I don't know why, but it made me want o go to a computer," Sayen said. She shivered as she remembered the Multiverse being crammed into her brain.

"I think we left a few drops of Vortex in your brain," Callia said worriedly. She was at a loss, never having experienced anything that could prepare her for this.

"A few drops should be safe," Sayen said. She walked up to Coralie's computer and looked at the keyboard closely. "If you hold down the shift key, then press one, you should get the exclamation point," she demonstrated by opening up word first.

"Okay," Henry said five minutes later. "I have 12-1-8-13, and we all know what those letters mean!"

"No we don't," Ginny said.

Hermione made a tut-tut sound. "The numbers stand for letters! 1 for A, 2 for B, and so on and so forth."

"Alright-y, then here's the word 'main,'" Henry said.

"Main looks an awful lot like Mei, don't you think?" Sayen asked slowly. "I think trip to visit Angelica is in order." ****

"I did get a letter, now that you mention it," Angelica opened the door to reveal what was either her room or a pigsty. Judging by the smell, it was the latter.

"I wasn't aware that you owned a farm," Mara said.

"Mara, be nice. Your room doesn't smell any better!" Sayen shot back.

"How would you know? You've never been to my room!" Mara retorted.

"Can't we just all get along?" Henry walked in again.

This time, Sayen hugged him, squealing. Mara just slapped her palm to her forehead in exasperation. But her expression quickly hardened when she saw Varda's upset face.

"Sayen, get off him and let Varda hug her boy," Mara ordered.

"Thanks, Mara," Varda hugged the girl first. "But I need to tell you, he's not **my** boy. Philomena doesn't belong to anyone but himself."

It was a few seconds before anyone could say, "Philomena?"

Varda shrugged. "It's Henry's middle name."

"I wish I had a cool middle name, like Spencer,'" Henry thought. Sayen looked at him, alarmed she knew that. Varda and Callia smacked Sayen at the same time, knowing what the sudden look meant.

"Control that," they both said simultaneously.

Sayen held her hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay," she said.

"Anyway, I don't know where the letter is," Angelica said, trying to ignore the awkwardness around her.

Sayen walked right up to a pile of grass-stained soccer uniforms and picked up the crumpled sheet of paper. "Angela, did you try to make a paper airplane with this?"

"No. I swear some guy attacked me with it. I almost forgot, but I am totally going to water-balloon him next Tuesday," Angelica vowed.

Sayen raised an eyebrow as Ben cheered, "Go Angela!" and clapped. She smoothed the paper over and nodded.

"Same symbols," she nodded.

"This one says Bri," Hermione said after a while. "Anybody here know someone named Bri or could be named Bri?"

"I don't even know anyone whose name begins with a B," Mara complained regretfully. She looked over at Varda and Sayen. They were completely silent and still. "What's wrong?"

"Catalina Bridges, that's what," Sayen looked at Varda. "I'm a bit closer to the Wolves than you, but you've always been better with people. Do you want to talk to her or should I?"

"You do it. I put that part of my life behind me," Varda's tone made it clear that she didn't blame Sayen in the least for still being in the gang.

"Alright," Sayen braced herself. ****

A brown-eyed, dark-skinned woman with long, loose brown curls opened the door. "Pearlie!" Catalina was surprised when she opened the door to her lavish house. "I haven't seen you in a very long time."

"I know," Sayen said, hugging the girl without hesitation. "I go by Sayen now."

"Sayen then," Catalina said with a lift of her eyebrows. "What did you come to ask for?"

"Did you get a letter a couple days ago from this address?" Sayen asked, showing her the envelopes from the other letters.

Catalina's eyes went wide as she read the pieces of paper she snatched from Sayen's hand "I did, as a matter of fact," she admitted. "I was scared because I didn't know who sent it or why. In the business of weapons trafficking, you've got to be careful," she said with a nod.

Sayen nodded knowingly. "I need to see it. I'm pretty sure I know what it's about, but if I don't get it, Ken could die. They say he's already dead, but Varda told me that she doesn't believe it. Something about their handwriting," she shook her head. "Someday, that girl and I are going to sit down for a good, long lesson."

"A lesson like I taught Graciela?" Catalina smirked.

Sayen colored. "That turned me off porn forever. The real thing felt vividly disturbing. Sex is supposed to be sacred."

"It is. Ella died," Catalina's eyes misted over as she fell on her couch like a sack of potatoes someone tossed out.

"Oh!" Sayen's hand flew to cover her violent oath. "I'm so sorry," she said tearfully. "When was the funeral?"

"We buried her head under the oak tree," Catalina said sadly. "We're still looking for the rest of her, and her killer," her eyes blazed with light during the last part.

"I'll help you just as soon as I get Ken back," Sayen promised.

Catalina nodded. "You do that. You were always attached to him. What did he do this time? I heard he was kidnapped."

"He was."

"But you found him?" it wasn't a question.

"Yes."

"Good," Catalina gave a nod that seemed to seal something. "You two were the most good in the entire Fauna gang. I wouldn't have expected you or him to settle down with anyone else."

"Oh," Sayen blinked. "We're not together," she protested.

Catalina smirked as she got up. "I believe you came here looking for a letter?" she asked, opening the drawer and taking out an envelope. "Here it is. I don't understand it."

"I do," Sayen said quietly. "It says Zei."

"Zei? What the hell does that mean?" Catalina threw her hands up.

"Zei for Zane, and who played Zane in my last movie?" Sayen asked.

"Ken, but he's not here. Maybe this is a clue. You have unrestricted access to all my money and weapons regardless of type and amount," Catalina said immediately.

"I don't think I'll need it that badly," Sayen said, staring at the wall. "I know what I need to do," she waved to Catalina once and left. ****

Ken was still floating in her orb. Sayen took her orb back and gently laid his body on her sofa. She hoped Ken's spirit self was still there in death. What if it wasn't? She stood for a while, contemplating what to do. She sang as she tired to figure it out.

"Two days past 18, he was waiting for the bus in his army greens." And she felt more than saw her surroundings melt away into a different place, a black place. She must be standing on something, because she wasn't falling, but she couldn't see anything but herself. Then a light came on to reveal a wood floor that stretched beyond what the light showed. Ken walked toward it and toward her, looking unshaven and even thinner than usual.

"Pearlie?" he asked, disbelieving.

"The name Ken means handsome, and you are," Sayen didn't bother to correct him. She liked it when he said her name. "It's me."

Ken hugged her tightly and sobbed. "I haven't seen life in here for so long!" he said between hiccups.

"You're gonna see plenty of light soon, I promise," Sayen said, hugging him back and patting him reassuringly.

"I know what you came for. Death brings increased awareness," he said, taking a letter out of his pocket.

"No it doesn't," Sayen said seriously. "You were dead and you never made a single clever remark. Cailean was here."

Ken looked a little guilty.

"What did he **do** to you, Ken?" tears where glistening in the back of her eyes.

"There's very little to be done for someone who's dead," Ken said. "Here," he handed her the letter with shaky hands.

Sayen took it without a word. "It says Orn."

"Death doesn't bring omniscience, but life does bring surprises," Ken smiled, brushing a thumb over Sayen's cheek to wipe away the tear she wasn't even aware of letting fall.

"I have to go," she said, not moving a bit. Then, almost inaudibly, "Thank you."

"We **will** meet again," said Ken, reassuring her.

Sayen nodded, lips thin like she didn't trust herself not to speak, and disappeared, taking the light with her. ****

"Orn sounds an awful lot like Horn, doesn't it? Leaf Horn," Varda named yet another gang member.

"Varda, you take this one," Sayen fled to another room.

"What's wrong?" Henry and Mara called after her.

Varda colored. "She's right. I had better take this one."

"What happened?" Bela asked, clearly confused.

"I don't need to ask to know. They had a tryst," Callia's expression went from shocked to barely restrained amusement to fear that Sayen had been hurt.

"Oh," Bela's mouth fell open. "HER!? But she was so innocent!"

"They didn't sleep with each other! Sayen walked in on Leaf having a three-way and she stared at him for a while. She said that he saw her and waved her in to join him. She left, of course. She is relatively innocent, but innocent is such a debatable term," Varda said. "Anyway, I had better be off. Don't worry, Phil, I'm not going on a canoe."

It was now Henry's turn to redden. ****

"I figured I'd find you here," Henry stepped in through the door. "I know you like nature. You and Varda both have tons of botany books."

"Correction," Sayen didn't care if she was rude, "**she** has botany books. I have books about flowers. Varda can name every plant and animal on the face of the earth. I can only name all the flowers, birds, cats, rabbits, elephants, and wolf-like dogs."

"Close enough," Henry shrugged and sat beside her. He seemed stiff, like he was angry. "I heard about Leaf."

Sayen groaned, but Henry held up a hand.

"And I'm inviting you to a two-way."

* * *

Next time on Tesseraction:

_There were four things wrong with this picture:_

_First, they were on the same bed._

_Second, they were sleeping next to each other._

_Third, they were completely naked._

_Fourth, Varda was screaming her head off, and she _never_ screamed._

I think things are about to get hot for our friends. Please click the review button and tell me you hated, loved, want to have babies, or want to stab this story repeatedly.


	5. Long Way Around

_"Long Way Around," by the Dixie Chicks, describes how a person sometimes has to give up things to do what they need to do. And Sayen has to finish her song. Sorry in advance about Carlisle's speech. I don't really know how they talked when he was still human. I got everything from Shakespeare. I wish I were kidding._

_...._

Chapter IV: Long Way Around

"Can we just grope in a closet?" Sayen asked. She was feeling pretty spiteful of Varda's bringing up Leaf.

Henry already had the door opened. He crawled in and extended his hand to help her. She took it without a sound.

* * *

"Hey, Swan!" the brown-eyed blond waved the girl over. "Decided to shed the good-girl image forever?"

"Not quite, Leaf," Varda removed Leaf's hands off her with a steely glance that couldn't be misinterpreted. "I missed you, and I need to see you where you put the letter you got earlier."

"Oh," Leaf was fast in getting it to her. "I didn't know what it meant. I thought it was someone threatening me," he trembled a little.

Varda softened. Under his womanizing surface, Leaf was just afraid and with a protective streak. "I'm sure it was nothing," she said kindly.

"Thanks," Leaf gave it to her. "Why would they give it to me, though?"

Varda missed a blink. "I don't know," she kicked herself for never having considered that before. But she quickly forgot it as she walked back to Belinda with the next clue. When she tried to enter Bela's room, however, she saw Henry and Sayen. There were three things wrong with that picture.

First, they were sleeping next to each other.

Second, they were in the same bed.

Third, they were completely naked.

It didn't take long for Varda to take a guess at what had happened. You can still hear the echoes of her scream if you listen closely.

* * *

"Luna, I need some advice," Sayen said sadly. "Varda thinks I'm a whore. Can you help?"

"Can you sing?"

Sayen blinked in surprise. "I have sung."

"What happens when you sing?"

"I kinda got my most pressing wish granted…oh."

"It's called a Swan Song Spell, no pun intended," Hermione looked at her uneasily. "The spell can only be activated by the subconscious, and only if no one else is singing, humming, or even thinking it along in their head. It will do whatever the singer wishes most subconsciously."

"Oh," Sayen tried to look at Hermione's book. The brunette snapped it shut, sending a ball of dust straight up the redhead's nose and making her contort her face into various positions before sneezing.

"What do you want most at this very moment?" Hermione asked.

"I want Varda to not be so mad," Sayen whimpered.

"Then sing something!" Hermione hissed.

Sayen took a deep breath. "My friends from high school married their high school boyfriends."

And then the whoosh again. Was Hermione sure about this?

* * *

Carlisle Cullen stared at the naked girl who just appeared in the middle of the road with no warning. Well, she wasn't completely naked, but by the standards of the 15th century, she would be considered a slut. Her faux-wrap flower-dotted dress went above her knees, she had sparkly lavender sandals, and the closest thing she had to a restraining corset was a velveteen ribbon with a fabric flower on it.

"Art thou a witch?" he asked.

"With the weird noses? Ew! No way! Carlisle, just be quiet," too late, Sayen jumped up, realizing her mistake.

She knew exactly who he was. That thought gave Carlisle a jolt. "Who art thou, then? Whither doth thou come?'

"Um," Sayen swallowed. "I'm just kinda not feeling that great. Can I leave?" What was the next verse to the stupid song?!

"Perhaps, but thou must wear something suitable to travel. What man would I be if I let thou contract consumption?" Carlisle said.

"Thanks?" Sayen knew that men back in those days were supposed to be all gentle because women were thought of as useless, but she still had her misgivings about going with a strange man by herself anywhere.

* * *

"Where's Sayen?" Varda demanded. She had just given Henry the screaming match of a lifetime and wasn't about to let Sayen off the hook.

"She started singing, and then she disappeared," Hermione said as nonchalantly as she could.

"She sang? Last time she sang, it was the only thing that got me out of her mind," Bela said worriedly.

And then Sayen materialized in front of them. Her long hair, usually down in all its honey-pink glory, was now twirled behind her in a sleek bun. She had ditched her floral dress, pink head band, and pink ballet flats for a white eyelet lace dress that went all the way down to her ankles and closed-toe sandals of some purple material.

Callia burst out laughing. Sayen shot her a dirty look. When she came out in sleeveless satin dress that was about mid-thigh level (I know, scandalous!), a pale pink sash around her middle (no corset, thank you very much), and a hair wreath with ribbons that tied into a bow at the back. She wasn't in the mood to get rid of her hair.

"It's hardly ever down, so why ruin it?" she asked.

"Well, I was worried when you were gone. Did you mean to leave?" Varda asked.

"No, but now that I have, I know I have to go back," Sayen looked a little regretful.

"Why?" Callia asked sharply.

"Because I haven't finished the song yet," Sayen said. "And I can't stop until the song is over."

"Then you better hurry up," Callia didn't sound happy.

"What was the clue, by the way?" Sayen changed the subject.

"It said Har, but I don't know what that's supposed to mean," Varda sighed. "I don't know anyone."

"Carla Santiago has that sound in her name. Geez, how many game members are we going to meet this week?" Varda rolled her eyes.

"What are we waiting for?" Sayen jumped up, not noticing Varda check her beeping computer. "Universe Number 4, here we come!"

"You've got mail!" Varda's computer beeped cheerfully.

* * *

A woman with shoulder-length blonde hair and dark brown eyes visibly relaxed when she saw who it was. "I felt a bit-"

"You, Cat, and Leaf all feel uneasy. Don't worry, this isn't gang-related," Mara interrupted with words of reassurance.

"Mara," Sayen put her hands on her hips before changing her mind and pulling the girl aside. "If you want people to like you," she said in a sibilant whisper, "you need to stop cutting their feelings off mid-sentence! And it wouldn't help to look them in the eye while they're talking either!"

Confused, Mara only nodded. Carla took advantage of the distraction to whip out her letter. "It's says Lu."

* * *

"YES!" Varda smiled, jumping up and down. She looked around in surprise when nobody told her to shut her face or they would break it and found that she was alone in the room. In fact, she was alone in the entire Tardis. Shrugging, she focused on her computer again. She had always wanted a Red Datsun 240Z.

"Why so low on price?" she typed in her IM to the owner. The reply was immediate.

"Moving. Must sell ASAP. Wanna take test drive?"

Varda slid to the floor in shock. Tomorrow was her sweet sixteenth, and damn if she wasn't going to break her squeaky-clean lawful citizen habit and take a totally illegal test drive on the car of her dreams!

"When?" she typed.

* * *

"I thought it was spelled L-O-U," Sayen said. "Who'd spell it L-U?" she fingered her silver necklace nervously.

"I have one," Callia said. "His name is Lu Burning, and he works at this expose show called _Predators Among Us_."

"I think I should tune into that channel," Sayen smiled. "Where does he live?"

"You're not gonna believe this," Callia smiled, "but he lives in Miami."

"Where we enter our codes?" asked Henry.

"I know!" Bela went to Belinda's computer. "Ladies and gentlemen, sluts and playboys, allow me to introduce you to the Skasis Paradigm."

"What does Sara's dime do?" Sayen asked dubiously.

"It knows everything there is to know in the Multiverse, which is usually reserved for Morphers," Bela said.

"What's a Morpher?" Sayen asked Callia. "You mentioned it, but I don't think you defined it."

"A Morpher is a god/goddess sort of being. They can morph into any creature known to their planet, mythological or actual," Callia responded.

"Like Varda, except that she gave her omniscience to me, and then I gave it to Belinda!" Sayen exclaimed.

"She didn't fully give it to you. Knowledge is like water. If I were to dump a bucketful of water into another bucket, there would still be drops of water clinging to the first bucket. Likewise, if I dumped the second bucketful of water into yet a third bucket of water, I would have droplets then hanging on to the second bucket," Callia said.

"So Varda could still help us. Where is she?" Lauren asked.

"The Master," Bela looked up. "I'm sure of it."

"What?" Lauren, Emily, Yadid, Callia, and Andres said at the same time. "The Master what?"

"He has her."

"What does he want from her?" Henry asked fearfully.

"She's a Morpher. He wants to use her soul to take over the universe."

"Again?" Emily and Lauren sounded almost bored.

"Well, an evil Time Lord has to get his kicks in somewhere," Bela shrugged like evil Time Lords trying to destroy the world were an everyday occurrence.

"Then what do we do?" Andres asked.

"I'm about to ask the Paradigm." There was a series of beeps and some circular squiggles appeared. No one but Bela appeared to understand them. "It says we need to find the vampires, because only they are capable of tearing apart the plan the Master has," he said finally. "We're going to need to take the long way around."

"Vampires? Where's Anne Rice when you need her?" Ben whined.

"Why Anne Rice? Why can't it be Twilight?" Sayen piped up.

Ben whined even louder. Callia ignored him. "Can you get to the Twilight world?"

"I don't know if I can bring them here, but I can definitely go there," Sayen said thoughtfully.

"Then what are you waiting for?! Go!" Callia pointed to the door.

Sayen smiled and stood where she was, singing.

* * *

Carlisle, Edward, Esme, Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper, and Alice were inside their homes when the doorbell rang. Every one of them froze. They had never had anyone call on them this late, and only Carlisle could think of a human who would dare contact a vampire. His guess was proven correct when he opened the door and gathered the girl into a hug. She gave a few squeaks of protest when he squeezed too hard, but she didn't sound frightened at all. Nor did she look scared as she surveyed the room.

* * *

"Hey," Varda greeted, offering her hand as the extremely hot stranger held his umbrella over her. "I'm Varda," she said as they walked to the car together. She could smell his cologne. A man who actually cared about hygiene? She _had_ to scoop this one up!

"Nice to meet you," said the stranger. "I'm Timothy Vogel."

"Varda Swan," Varda's hand was completely enveloped.

* * *

_Oh, having a guy completely swallow you up is never good._

_In the next chapter, more will be revealed about Vogel. And if you're too used to Varda being a goody-two-shoes virgin, you might want to stop reading right here. But do review._

_Sayen closed her eyes and mouthed something. The look on her face suggested great pain, or great constipation._


	6. Sober

_The "Sober" this chapter is titled is from a song by Kelly Clarkson. Varda and Sayen are love and affection junkies, like how alcoholics are alcohol junkies. And Varda, at least, is going to try to be more sober._

Chapter V: Sober

"It's a 2.4-liter, 6-cylinder engine," Timothy began.

"With Hitachi side-draft carbs," Varda smiled as she finished for him.

Timothy chuckled. 'That's right. Wanna take a look under the hood?"

"Yeah!" Varda jumped at the chance.

"You really know your rides," Timothy said.

"Rides?" Varda looked at him, confused.

"Rides, you know, they're your thing," now Timothy was confused.

"My thing? Is this a sex metaphor?"

"I don't know," Timothy slid closer to her. "Is it?"

Henry's face, and what it would look like once he knew she had had sex with someone else, flashed in her mind. But then she recalled his betrayal. "Yes it is."

Five hours later, Timothy was gently stroking Varda's bare buttock with a finger. "You know, you're the first one whose never mentioned my micropenis."

"Experience is always better than size," Varda said in a low voice.

* * *

Carlisle looked surprised when the witch materialized in front of him.

"Yeah, me," Sayen nodded cheerfully. "How are you and the mob doing?" she gave the torch-wielding group outside.

"Thou must-" Carlisle hesitated. He couldn't send her outside; the mob would, well, mob her.

"I'm here to help. When the old vampire bites you, I can take you someplace," Sayen said seriously. "You just need to…" she stopped. What did she want him to do, trust her? What had she done to deserve his trust, other than show him an uncanny ability to know the future.

"I trust you."

Oh. Well, that was easy.

* * *

"Anybody seen Varda around?" Sayen asked loudly to unsuccessfully try and mask Carlisle's screaming from the rest of the Tardis Team.

"Yes," Varda entered, looking very happy. "I just met the greatest guy, like, ever!" She walked past Henry without a acknowledging the hurt expression on his face. Or perhaps she did. It wasn't as if he deserved her sympathy, or her now-nonexistent virginity.

Oh, hell, everyone deserved her sympathy as long as they wanted it. She hugged Henry and decided she'd break up with Timothy the next morning. If only she could call across time periods….

"Hey, Bela, can you upgrade my phone?"

* * *

"Has everyone turned into sex maniacs, or is there something I'm missing?" Sayen asked Callia.

"Really? I didn't know if you're really missing it," Callia's protectiveness of Varda's innocence and utter distaste for Sayen's was really getting on Sayen's nerves.

"Whatever. Where's Varda now? Bela and I just found this really cool mathematical equation that even he can't figure out," Sayen said. "It could tell us where we input what codes to reboot the universe."

Callia shrugged. "She went in a car with a looker."

Sayen's jaw dropped, but then she was on alert. That didn't escape Callia's notice.

"Are you picking up readings?" Callia asked suddenly.

"Yeah," Sayen nodded, eyes seeing some other dimension. "I think she's in a helluva lotta trouble."

* * *

"It's not you. It's me," Varda was slightly afraid of Timothy's anger, but not as much as she was afraid of Henry's rejection. "I shouldn't have entered a relationship when I was so involved with someone else. I'm so sorry," she said. "You can drop me off-" she pointed at the exit, which Timothy drove past. "Hello, that was the turn," she started feeling nervous. Timothy ignored her. "Maybe just pull over here and we can try a U-turn," she suggested. Still receiving no response, Varda tried to unlock the door, wondering if it would hurt to jump out the car. The door was stuck. "Okay, let me out right now," she ordered. She was once again ignored, and she screamed. She needn't have bothered; she and Timothy were traveling so fast nobody could've heard her. ****

Sayen stared listlessly into the corner, Bela paced, and Callia stared at his pacing. Out of the blue, Bela snapped his fingers.

"I've got it!" he pointed at Sayen. "I remember an episode where you continually travel back in time to rescue an abused child named Aaron Hotchner by singing some song. I don't remember the words, but it the melody was like this: bum, bum, bum, baa!"

'"Other Side of the World,' by KT Tunstall," Sayen nodded impatiently. "Do I sing it now?"

"No, but he'll know you, so act like you'll know him. He's the head of an FBI unit. He'll know what to do."

* * *

"Let's call him…Sergio," Hotch said playfully.

"Let's not," Callia said, opening the door.

Hotch grabbed his gun and pointed it at Callia, asking, "How did you find me and why are you here?"

Callia didn't answer; instead, she let Sayen enter the room. Hotch dropped his gun in shock and it fired harmlessly at the wall, startling Hayley.

"Callie, you're dead. And why are you here, Dulcea?" Hotch asked. Confusion was evident in every line of his aged face.

"I'm in WITSEC, so call me Callia," Callia lied.

"I need your help," Sayen said. "And Jack is a perfectly good name," she smiled at Hayley. However, Hayley was too busy being Cullen-pale to respond.

* * *

Henry beckoned Gideon toward the group, and Sayen grew paler by the second. Hotch kept sending her strange looks.

"He's been dubbed 'The Seattle Strangler,'" said Hotch. "He's taken four victims in four months. Seattle police have no tangible leads and now another girl is missing."

"I'll look it over and get some thoughts to Morgan quickly. I trust he's been informed," Gideon said.

"He's pissed about it," Sayen said tonelessly. "He was probably in a bar chatting up girls."

Gideon looked at her in surprise. "Are you a profiler?"

Morgan's entrance cut the conversation short. "No, she isn't, and we want you to come with the team to Seattle."

"Varda downloaded a virus with her last emails from the kidnapper," Sayen said, picking up the laptop, and promptly dropping it. "Well, it used to say, 'For heaven's sake, catch me before I kill more. I cannot control myself,' over and over."

Gideon walked over to a photo where the same words were written in blood on a wall above a bed.

"William Heirens, 1945," Callia said. Now Gideon looked at her in surprise. "I was a homicide cop," she said.

"The Seattle Strangler never keeps his victims for over seven days, so we only have 36 hours to find Varda alive," said Hotch.

"It looks like medical leave's over, sir," said Henry.

"Are you sure you want me?" Gideon asked.

"The order came from Director Strauss herself," said Hotch.

Gideon nodded. "Giddy-up!"

* * *

"How about this one? 'The belief in supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness."'

"Joseph Conrad," Sayen said listlessly. Gideon cursed. He had done everything he knew to try to get this girl to show some emotion. Clearly, she wouldn't be alright until she found her friend.

"Why are these people allowed on the plane?" asked Morgan, pointing to Sayen and Callia's entourage from the current universe.

"Because they have vital information," Hotch said. The real reason was because he couldn't say no to Sayen.

"The killer stabbed and strangled his first victim," Callia pointed out. "But he used a belt to strangle his second victim, why?"

Sayen shuddered, thinking of finding Varda's body like that, and what her friend would feel if she died like that.

"Contrary to popular myth, it's really difficult to strangle someone with your bare hands," said Yadid.

"_How_ do you know that?" Emily asked warily.

Yadid shrugged. "I had to play a murderer once."

"Huh," Emily scooted a little further away from Yadid.

"Oh, come on!" Yadid said loudly. "I didn't _do_ anything!"

Emily and Yadid looked at each other for a while, then she scooted back into his lap.

Sayen cleared her throat. "The killer's learning as he goes. He's perfecting his methods to become a better killer."

* * *

Varda wished she were anywhere but here. In fact, if someone offered to take her place…stop. She couldn't think like that. She had to find a way to get out of here! Gripping the metal bars of her cage, she screamed. However, Timothy didn't hear a thing—the scream was sent to Sayen's mind.

* * *

Sayen gasped and touched her temple. When the screaming stopped, she closed her eyes and mouthed something. The look on her face suggested great pain, or great constipation.

"What?" Hotch asked.

Sayen opened her eyes. "Um, nothing."

* * *

Bela heard the Sayen speak as if she were so close, she was inside him. But he didn't focus on the oddness of a human having greater psychic powers than he did; he drove the Tardis into the boat and prayed the boat could hold it. As it turned out, the tesseracts landed him in Antarctica. Go figure!

* * *

Morgan pulled Hotch aside. "Have you noticed how Gideon never stands with his back to a window. He asked me to move when I was between him and the door."

"I'm not surprised," Sayen said, walking by. "He's hyper-vigilant; that's classic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder." When Morgan looked at her oddly, Sayen added, "Varda's my psychiatrist. I pick things up."

"It's been six months," Hotch said. "Everything's okay for Gideon." He stepped in front of the Seattle cops for introductions. "This is Special Agent Gideon. This is Special Agent Morgan, our expert on obsessional crimes. This is Special Agent Gibson-"

"Dr. Gibson," Callia corrected.

"Dr. Gibson, our expert on…well, everything. This is Special Agent Callia Hotchner—I mean, Reid. The rest are students trying to learn how to profile, and after two years of busting my butt in this office, I hope you remember me." Everyone laughed.

"Do you know why she introduced me as Dr. Gibson?" Henry whispered to Sayen.

"Because she knows that people see you as a kid and she wants to make sure they respect you. Your theories are valid. They just need to be accepted as so," Sayen whispered back. Immediately, both teams examined the evidence and the map displayed on the boards.

"The unsub is willing to move the bodies, so he must drive a truck or an SUV large enough to conceal one," Sayen said.

"Yeah, but what type of SUV?" Callia asked.

"Probably a Jeep Cherokee," said Henry. "Jeeps are the most masculine cars and unsubs-"

"Wait, what? Unsubs?" Andres asked.

"Unsub is an abbreviation of 'unknown subjects,'" Henry said. "Unsubs want to display their masculinity."

Hotch nodded, impressed. "But look how he dumped his bodies inside different jurisdictional lines." Seeing Emily's blank look, he expanded. "Jurisdiction is the area police in one station have authority over. And an unsub familiar with jurisdiction is usually part of law enforcement."

* * *

_Next time, Sayen gets annoyed. Where's a good teleportation device when you needed one?_


	7. Hate Me

_"Hate Me" is by Blue October, and the song was picked for it's ability to sing what Sayen feels. She thinks Callia doesn't like her, but she doesn't know why, so she's going to do stupid stunts to justify Callia's animosity towards her. And all the while, Callia gets more and more irritate because of Sayen's idiocy. Okay, that's today's lecture. Thank you, come again._

_And ! Please?_

Chapter VI: Hate Me

"So the unsub is familiar with these jurisdictional lines," Lauren pointed at one. Hotch nodded, and she was encouraged. "Does that mean he's familiar with law enforcement in general?"

"If so, knowledge of law enforcement suggests a criminal record," said Henry. "He's done crimes before."

"Or that he watches television, and no one goes from law-abiding citizen to a cold-blooded murderer," Morgan shot the idea down. "May I?" he walked over to the large map pinned on the board.

"Actually, I was wondering if we could go to the crime scene where the last body was dumped," Gideon and Callia said at once.

* * *

It was times like this that Bela wished he was clairvoyant. Usually, just a person's body language and the smell of their pheromones were enough to tell what they were thinking. However, what Timothy was thinking suddenly didn't matter as much as how Bela was going to get away from the gun held to his head. Yes, times like these, Bela wished he could send mind messages to other people.

Of course, being adept at physical violence wasn't bad either.

* * *

A Seattle officer joined Morgan in the dirty, damp area under a bridge. "So, that's Gideon, _the_ Gideon? The one who caught that guy, Adrian Bale, in Boston?" He and Morgan both kept their eyes on the scene.

"Yep, that's him. But catching him cost us six agents," Morgan said.

"The last victim was found with her nails clipped so she could fight back, but not hurt the unsub," Callia said, reading the report. "He also left the belt around her neck."

"So the unsub is in his early twenties," Gideon said.

"Why?" Callia asked challengingly.

"He's full of the arrogance that only comes from youth," he replied. "He clothed the body before he dumped it, which means remorse."

"Remorse?" Morgan was incredulous. "Gideon, look where we are. This is a garbage dump."

"Split personalities?" Emily suggested.

* * *

"Whoa! Easy, Peanut Butter!" said Sayen to Varda's poodle, who was barking at Henry.

"No, it's alright," said Henry. "Dogs and kids don't like anyone in my family. It's called the 'Gibson Effect.'"

"I'm sorry. She's been howling nonstop since my daughter disappeared. It's like she knows something's wrong," Ferrol Swan, husband of Miyo Swan, said worriedly.

"You look to young to have gone to medical school," said Ferrol.

"They're PhDs, not a medical degree," said Henry. "I have three of them," he smiled, not bragging.

"Are you a genius or something?" asked Ferrol.

"I don't believe that intelligence can be accurately quantified, but I do have an IQ of 187 and an eidetic memory and can read 20000 words per minute," Henry said. Varda's father gave him a look. "Yes, I am a genius."

"Does your daughter drive a Red Datsun?" Hotch asked.

"No, but she wants one as soon as she can drive," said Sayen.

"An immediate relationship is established between a buyer and a seller," said Henry.

"So there would be a level of trust," Sayen cottoned on. "Posing as a car seller, the unsub guy could get Varda in his car. But Varda wouldn't just hop in a car without an escape route. She knows what happened to me when I did that."

"What happened?" Hotch asked.

Sayen demurred. "I have to go," she said. She started to sing the Cullen's song again.

* * *

"Carlisle, is this your family?" she asked cheerfully before greeting them all by name. The pale family looked at her, then each other, in astonishment. She looked a little insulted. "Surely you all know me. I was there when you all transformed, except for Jasper and Alice."

"That was a long time ago," said Emmett, the youngest. "Even for me."

"But I do remember your voice," Rosalie said with a neutral expression on her face. "Carlisle took Emmett inside the house to change him, you gave him a pill you said an Asian girl gave you and he stopped hurting. You were upset because you had sex with someone."

"And you were there when I was turned, and Rosalie too. I'm sorry I didn't recognize you at first. Are you a vampire too?" Esme asked.

"She's human," Edward said, awed. "I hear her telling me to get out of her secrets, because anything I want to know about her, all I need to do is ask." He leaned forward, straining. "And now I can't read her at all."

"I'm not the only human you'll meet whom you can't read," she said. "I'm Sayen Reid."

"Sayen? But the first time we met, before I was changed, you said your name was Elizabeth," Carlisle looked a little hurt.

"Sayen is an American Indian name that you wouldn't have heard in the 17th century, and I don't think you would have taken too well to the fact that I'm a time traveler." Sayen looked apologetic and scared.

"Why are you here, Sayen?" Carlisle asked. "I didn't call for you and no one is being changed, so why this impromptu visit?"

"I came to talk to Rosalie," Sayen faced the blonde. "I can let you have babies, but it's gonna take a lot of energy, so I need Carlisle right here."

"How?" Rosalie's eyes were bright.

"I can transfer the life from my womb to yours."

"How can a human do that?" Rosalie's voice was haughty.

"I can jump across centuries but you don't think I can do a partial life transfer? I did a whole life transfer earlier; I should be able to do this."

"But doesn't that mean you can't have children? I don't wish that fate on anyone."

"Rosalie, I have an extra X chromosome, which means the chances of me getting pregnant are about a zillion to one. I can't have sex a zillion times! I don't have that kind of time! But you do," Sayen said gently.

Rosalie nodded quickly. "Do it."

"I'm going to warn you, though, this makes me partially a vampire and you partially human. Please avoid anything that can potentially hurt your stomach," Sayen said.

Rosalie nodded impatiently, but dutifully, and Sayen knew her words were taken seriously. "Just do it already!"

This time, it didn't drain nearly as much energy. Sayen drew a line from her stomach to Rosalie's. Rosalie's end of the line was a dark plum color, almost black. Sayen's end was a shade of yellow so pale it was almost white. But so slowly it was almost unnoticeable, the colors reversed themselves.

"Are you alright?" Sayen asked Rosalie.

Rosalie nodded. "I think so. Can I get pregnant now?"

Carlisle touched Rosalie's stomach, then Sayen's. Rosalie's was warmer, and he could feel a pulse under the skin.

Rosalie was partially alive!

And Sayen felt a little nauseous. She got to her feet rather unsteadily, ready to sing and leave, but called to Bela instead. Where was a good teleportation device when you needed one? She heard a few grunts in the background and her eyes widened.

* * *

"He's obviously a paranoid psychotic," said Callia. "He dressed the bodies before they were dumped."

"But he wouldn't have dumped the body like garbage if he were paranoid," Henry pointed out.

"Callia has some good points," Hotch said.

"Reid," Callia stood up and Hotch realized she was taller than he was. "Not Callia—Reid."

"What Gibson says makes more sense," Morgan argued.

Gideon stared at the map of the area, listening. "Stop," he said as the profilers began to argue loudly. "Tell them we're ready," he told Hotch. Hotch nodded, and both men left.

"What?" Morgan asked, staring at the two before facing Callia and Henry. "Cal, you good with this? We got your friend, who's only got a few hours to live, an incomplete profile, and a unit chief on the verge of a nervous breakdown."

"They don't call them nervous breakdowns anymore," said Gideon as he came back in to take a marker before leaving.

"It's called a major depressive episode," said Henry, not even looking up. "And if you want to live, don't call her Cal."

"I know, Gibson!" Morgan snapped. The trio left.

"The unknown subject, or unsub, is a white male in his late twenties, someone who blends into any crowd, and has a criminal record. He's organized, psychopathic, not psychotic, and smart," Henry said nervously. He glanced over at Callia, then backed into a corner.

"The killer rapes his victims," Callia spoke up from her place at the wall. When she knew all eyes were on her, she walked forward. "However, since it is rape without penetration, he's most likely impotent."

"He has a history of paranoia stemming from a childhood trauma, like the death of a family member or friend," Gideon continued, pacing. He made sure he made eye contact with each officer at least once. "Organized killers have a fascination with law enforcement, so he will _inject_ himself into the investigation.," he followed this with a flowing arm motion. "That is why I think—as a matter of fact, I _know_—you have already interviewed him."

* * *

"What's going on now?" Sayen asked, walking in breathlessly.

"That depends. Where have you been?" asked Callia.

"There's gonna be time for that. I just need to know where we are on the kidnapping case," Sayen said.

"We think the kidnapper is Richard Slessman," said Hotch. "We need to get to his address."

"Is his house occupied?" Sayen asked.

"Of course it's occupied!" Morgan said, giving her a surprised look.

"I meant if it's occupied by other people. I don't want SWAT sent into a house with little kids," Sayen said.

Morgan turned to Hotch. "Hotch, she's right. We need to get Slessman out alone."

Hotch nodded and took his thumbnail out of his mouth. "We need an undercover agent who isn't afraid to travel alone with Slessman."

"I'll do it," Sayen said quickly. "I'll do whatever it takes."

Hotch and Callia looked at each other, both knowing neither could talk Sayen out of what she had decided to do, and forgetting about the news she had.

"How can we be sure to get Slessman out alone?" asked Callia.

Sayen frowned thoughtfully until a smile spread slowly across her face. "Well, only guys who want to be macho men drive Jeep Cherokees, right?" she asked. "Well, we appeal to his masculine side. I say that I need help, and he'll have to prove his manly side."

"Good job," Hotch looked at her, clearly impressed.

"Not really. If Sayen was Varda and vice versa, we would have had Sayen back from the get-go," Callia said disparagingly.

"You hate me," Sayen spat, shaking. She ran out the door.

Callia was quiet, but Hotch knitted his eyebrows together. Something wasn't right here.

* * *

Sayen knocked rhythmically on the door, and an elderly woman opened it. "Hi, you may not know me, but I live nearby. Um, I came home and the door was open, but the lights were off. I was wondering if you could spare someone to come with me to make sure there's no one inside," Sayen said.

* * *

_No, I am not going to tell you where Sayen went. Not yet. You're going to have to wait for Criminal Finds to be finished first. And unfortunately, it will take a while._

_Next time on Tesseraction, the killer calls Sayen and Callia gets pissed off. "Listen, you dirty rotten sonuvabitch, I-" Callia stopped abruptly. "No, I don't want my penis enlarged. Thank you, and don't ever call here again."_


	8. Torn

_"Torn" is by Natalie Imbruglia. The song was chosen purely for its dancibility. That sounded so much better in my head. Anyway, enjoy!_

Chapter VII: Torn

The elderly woman turned toward the upper floor. "Richard! Richard, get down here!"

A few minutes later, a scrawny boy with a flashlight was making Sayen think she would have to be the one doing the protecting if a murderer with two apparent personalities popped out of the woodwork. They made their way to the empty house silently.

"Hello," Richard said into the darkness, reminding her that _he_ was the murderer with two apparent personalities. His beam fell on Elle Greenaway's shadowy silhouette. "Hello!?" he said, this time more loudly.

Out of the blue, agents appeared, yelling. "Freeze!" they cried.

"Richard Slessman, you're under arrest for murder," said Gideon. When Slessman saw Gideon, he smiled, and Henry noticed.

"Emerson said, 'All is a riddle, and the key to a riddle is another riddle?'" Henry mentioned in passing.

"Why do you say that?" Sayen asked.

"Because Slessman looks like he's happy to see Gideon in particular. Why?" Henry asked.

Sayen felt her heart sink at the realization that Slessman knew something none of them did, and tried to cover it up with an insult at the nearest person available. "Why, Gibson, you're becoming an actual FBI profiler, aren't you?"

Henry skulked away to next door. "There are no signs of Varda ever having been here," he told Gideon. "We won't be able to hold him long."

"You were right about him losing a relative," said Callia. "His mother died in a fire when he was thirteen."

"He probably started the fire," said Elle. "Fire starting as a child is one of the first signs of being a serial killer."

"So is animal abuse," Sayen piped up.

"And Varda said something about bedwetting," Henry said.

"Elle, you have a background in sex offender cases," said Gideon. "What do you think about this case?"

"The unsub is an anger-excitation rapist," said Elle.

"He probably records or videotapes his crimes," said Sayen.

"Do you ladies mind if Hotch and I interview Slessman first? Richard knows the system and will ask for a lawyer immediately," said Gideon.

Elle and Sayen both gave him a hard look, but seeing no way to get out of it, agreed. Noting their displeasure, Morgan leaned down and whispered, "Next time, show a little leg."

Elle and Sayen both followed Morgan up the stairs. "Excuse me? The only time you're going to see a little leg is when I'm kicking your ass," Sayen said pleasantly.

"Seriously, I want that position open at the BAU. You got any advice?" Elle asked.

"All I can say is this; trust your instincts," said Morgan.

Callia whistled outside and Sayen went dashing down the stairs, tripping more than three times. She came upon the woman towering over Hotch and Gideon in front of the garage.

"Well, we got the Jeep right," Hotch sighed.

"And everything else wrong," Gideon said.

"How so?" Sayen asked.

"The bodies had defensive wounds, Richard doesn't have a mark ion him," said Callia. "We're missing something."

"But he is a killer," Sayen frowned. "I can just feel it."

The four turned their heads toward the sound of Morgan yelling, "DON'T!" upstairs.

"It isn't serious," Emily said, coming out. "He's mad at the police officers. There was a note under the computer that was labeled 'password,' and they put it in. It turned out to be a fake one that made the computer shut down. I could have told them that nobody keeps their password underneath their computer! It's like putting your house key under your rug."

"A lot of people do that," said Gideon, humored.

"Can we go back inside?" Lauren asked, shivering. "It's freezing."

After the team shooed everyone else out of the attic, Andres made Lauren some hot tea and turned on the TV so she could watch his show. In front of the television was something that looked like no board game either of them had ever seen.

"What's that?" asked Lauren, turning her chin at it before she drank.

Sayen looked amazed as she approached it. "It's a game. Varda plays it a lot."

"What kind of game is it?" asked Elle.

"Varda called it 'Wei Qi,' but I've heard Caucasians call it 'Go.' It's considered the most difficult board game ever conceived."

"Chairman Mao required his generals to learn it," Gideon mentioned as Sayen leaned down at the board.

"It also looks like he was playing himself," said Sayen.

"How can you tell?" asked Elle.

Sayen pointed to the board. "Varda played it. This might provide an advantage; 'Go' is can reveal a person's psychological profile. Varda's a conservative point counter, Callia's an aggressor, and I'm a finessor."

"What kind of player is Slessman?" asked Hotch.

Sayen looked at it a little bit longer before looking up to give a sure reply. "Extreme aggressor."

Henry came up. "I've just restarted Slessman's laptop," he said, "but I don't know what the password is."

"Don't worry. I have someone I call during these times," Morgan said. He took out his phone and dialed Garcia.

"You've reached Penelope Garcia in the FBI's Office of Supreme Genius," said a cheery voice. Sayen smiled.

"Hey, it's Morgan. Need you to work me some magic here. I got a program called Deadbolt Defense and a girl with only a couple of hours to live, so what do you know?"

"That you got a problem. Deadbolt's the number one password-crack-resistant software out there. You're gonna have to get inside this guy's head to get the password."

"I thought I was calling the Office of Supreme Genius," said Morgan.

"Well, gorgeous, you've been rerouted to the Office of Too Frigging Bad," was Garcia's snappy reply.

"Thanks anyway," Morgan sighed as he hung up.

"You are a profiler," Sayen said slowly with confusion, giving him an odd look. "You're the profiler, go profile. You've got a whole house to work with," she swept her hand over the room as Gideon came in. "Try to guess the password."

"In six tries?" Morgan gave her a "You're crazy" look.

"Try again. Fail again. Fail better," said Gideon.

"Samuel Beckett," Sayen and Henry said at once. They looked at each other and smiled wearily.

Morgan gave the duo the same look Sayen had given him not one minute ago. "Try not. Do, or do not."

Now Sayen, Henry, and Gideon all looked confused.

"Yoda," Emily said, coming in. Gideon looked at her, still confused, but the three teenagers laughed.

Emily pulled a book off the shelf. "The Journal of Applied Criminal Psychology?" she looked surprised. "Well, you got the criminal background right," she flipped through the pages and a news article fell out. She picked it up and read, "Shrapnel Blast Kills Six." She flipped it over before poking Gideon's arm. "Hey," she pointed to the picture. "Isn't he you?"

Gideon ignored her in favor of snatching both book and article and walking downstairs to Slessman. Morgan cursed.

"What did I do?" Emily looked blank.

"I don't know," Sayen frowned. The girls followed Gideon downstairs.

"You're a fan of Adrian Bale's work?" Gideon slid the book and the article across the table to Slessman and leaned forward.

"No," Slessman leaned forward too. "I'm a fan of yours." He leaned closer. "You know, they never give you the real facts about CPR. That outside of a hospital it's only effective 7% of the time. Your friend had a 93% certainty of dying, but you kept trying, even after you'd broken his ribs, even after his blood was all over your hands."

Gideon refused to break. "Where's Varda Swan."

"I don't know where she is," said Slessman.

Gideon got up and stormed past Hotch and Sayen, both of whom joined him behind the house.

"Is it true, what he said about CPR?" asked Hotch upon joining him. "I mean, I didn't know."

"It's really a 2%-30% chance of CPR working in the hospital," Sayen piped up. "And there's only a 6%-15% chance of CPR working inside the hospital." She grew quiet. "Varda would know. She's a doctor."

"You two want statistics on CPR, ask Gibson," Gideon spat.

"They want to know that you're okay," Emily stepped out. "Lauren pointed out that you're trying very hard to hold it together."

"I'm fine," Gideon lied.

"You can't be two different people…at once," Callia straightened. "That's what's wrong with the profile. The two different behaviors are because there are **two** **different** **people**."

"So Slessman either has disassociative identity disorder or there's a second killer," Emily brightened.

Sayen smiled pleasantly as she answered her phone. As she hung up, however, she was no longer so chipper. "Varda's alive," she said.

"How can you tell?" asked Callia.

"Slessman referred to her in the present tense. He said he had no idea where she is, not where she was," Sayen said quickly.

"You're astute," Gideon observed. "But so am I. What are you hiding?"

All eyes on her again, Sayen sighed. "Remember when I didn't tell Callia where I was when she asked? Well, now is the time to say it. I was called by the Seattle Strangler. And he wants to make a deal."

* * *

"No way are you trading yourself for Varda," Hotch said firmly.

"Look, Varda is a genius. You guys'll find me in an hour," Sayen said.

"Why are you so eager to die?" Hotch asked.

Sayen looked confused. "I'm not. I just think-"

"You're not! You can die! And death is the end of it. Boom! Gone! Kaput! And that's it! Everything you'll ever experience, you'll already have experienced," Hotch said agitatedly.

Sayen could feel Morgan's concerned gaze boring a hole into her skull. "Look, you need to calm down, alright?"

"No, you need to calm down. You can't be the sacrificial lamb. You don't even know what it means to be the sacrificial lamb," Callia argued.

"Why are you taking his side?" Sayen whined. Her phone buzzed. Callia and Hotch both lunged for it, the latter pausing halfway.

"Listen, you dirty rotten sonuvabitch, I-" Callia stopped abruptly. "No, I don't want my penis enlarged. Thank you, and don't ever call here again." She hung up and turned to Sayen. "I think we should rethink the hostage switching possibility."

"No," Hotch said, face like stone.

Callia turned to him. "You do realize that, once she sets her mind to it, she'll do whatever it takes to get there."

"I'm right here!" Sayen protested. "When people say, 'Don't talk behind people's backs,' I'm sure they meant to include fronts in there too!"

Hotch emitted a harsh bark of laughter. "You've trained her well," he stormed out of the room. "We're going to switch the hostages. And Slessman will be our middleman."

* * *

_Next time on Tesseraction: _

_"Why are you pacing?" Yadid asked Hotch._

_"Callia's in the same prison as Slessman. Prisoners tend to be violent. I'm worried she might not come back in one piece."_


	9. Boom Boom Pow

_"Boom Boom Pow" is by the Black-Eyed Peas, and I have just done something I swore I'd never do: I used the title of a song I hated as the title of a chapter I love. Still, I wouldn't have picked it if it weren't so absolutely fitting. A bomb goes off. Hence the "BOOM! BOOM! KA-POW!" stuff._

Chapter VIII: Boom Boom Pow

"It's been an hour. Why has Slessman's car not returned?" asked Gideon agitatedly.

"We have to consider the possibility that this was just a ploy to gain two hostages at once. Varda could already be dead, and now they're just doing whatever they can to get another hostage," said Hotch, face stoic as ever.

"It isn't," Callia said. "I heard the voice on the other end. I'm not a profiler, but I'm not an idiot either. I know that Varda-"

The four agents, Elle, Morgan, Gideon, and Hotch, and two pretend agents, Callia and Henry, jumped fifty feet in the air as a car exploded as it turned the corner to them. Once the debris and smoke was mostly cleared away, they could see Slessman, groaning, bleeding, and crawling toward them.

Callia reached him first. "Where's Varda?" she screamed in his face. Hotch and Morgan had to both physically restrain her from killing Slessman then and there, while Gideon tried to staunch the bleeding. Elle pulled out a phone to dial 911, and Henry threw himself at the remains of the car to try to find Varda. But it was no use.

There was no trace of her anywhere.

* * *

"There was no trace of a bomb," said Elle. "I couldn't find any trace of anything that didn't belong to a car."

"There is a chance that Slessman just turned the corner wrong," Henry said.

"So do we operate under the assumption that Varda is dead?" Morgan asked, facing Hotch. Gideon was so quiet, nobody wanted to look at him, or Callia.

Hotch was so busy pondering the forces that could make a mother feel more for a stranger than for her own child, he took a while before answering. "Serial-killing teams aren't that rare," he said. "There's usually a submissive and a dominant personality."

"Slessman would be the submissive," Henry was quick to point out.

"The other guy, he's like the schoolyard bully recruiting a good underling. He'll be protective of Richard and make him feel like he owes him," said Callia.

"We need to identify the other guy, and fast," Lauren said, upset. "I don't want anyone else to die."

* * *

Callia sat down in front of Henry. "I just paid my friend Eddie a little visit, and I want to give you something." She handed over a halberd, an orb, an amethyst amulet, a sword, a wand, and a faceted black ball. "Now, you are in charge of water."

Henry looked at the things in his hand. "You can't possibly be serious." He started to hand the amulet and the ball back, but Callia closed her fist over his.

"Look, you have a connection to Varda that no one else here has. If I have to grant you more power to figure out where she is, so be it, I'll do that," Callia explained. "Sayen used her abilities to bring Ken back to life. We don't even know if Varda's dead yet."

Henry didn't ask, "What if she is?" He knew that he would have a harder time dealing with it than anyone else. He closed his eyes and barely felt them sink into his own skin.

"Now, tell me where Varda is," Callia said.

* * *

Morgan lay on Slessman's bed and looked around the head of the bed. Often, the things that are closest within reach of the bed are the things that help the person go to sleep. In Slessman's case, it seemed to be music—CDs to be exact. Heavy metal music. Morgan sighed. This was proving impossible. He hadn't learned anything except why Slessman had trouble sleeping. Then he noticed the CDs on the shelf nearby. He opened a few of the more worn-looking ones and smiled.

"Hey!" he called to Emily and Yadid outside the room. "I need you to look at all of these and tell me which one looks more used."

* * *

Callia was very displeased. "Damn Sayen," she would've said, just so she could be angry at the tesseracts that prevented Henry from getting a reading on where Varda was. But Sayen could be dead, and Callia knew better than to insult her sister/daughter when she wasn't around. It would be almost like lying. She shook the distressing thoughts out of her head and focused on the task at hand—giving Mrs. Slessman a cup of hot tea so she would like them more and give more information.

"Did your son have any special friends?" asked Hotch.

"There was a man," said Mrs. Slessman after a while. "His name was Charlie." She took a sip. Callia and Hotch were getting uncomfortable, sitting so close to each other with nothing to do.

"Does Charlie have a last name?" Callia asked.

"Um, Linder, I think," Mrs. Slessman said slowly.

Further away, Lauren looked at a pile of papers she had gathered on Slessman for a Charles Linder. When she found it, she nudged Andres with her shoulder. "Look!" she hissed. "Slessman's cellmate at prison!"

Andres looked closely at it. "Cascadia Prison. So Slessman does have a criminal record." He looked very uncomfortable and kept rubbing his arms. This didn't escape Lauren's notice.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I'm a man of comedy, not murder. Just being in this building, it makes me nauseous. I don't know how you can stomach it," Andres frowned. "I mean, these are men who kidnap girls and kill them. Girls who look like Emily, like you."

Lauren looked away for a moment, then swallowed. "I guess I never really thought about it in death terms."

"Well, can we get out of here, then?" Andres asked.

Lauren looked at him. "Just because we're leaving doesn't mean that death won't happen to us."

Andres laughed. "Oh, I'd like to see death **try** to touch you."

Lauren smiled and kissed him. "We'll leave as soon as I tell that FBI guy what I found."

* * *

"What are you doing?" Callia asked Henry as she sank into a chair. Taking care of four lovesick people at a restaurant was harder that profiling, it felt, so she just left them alone in the restaurant.

"I'm waiting for Linder's address to be faxed over," Henry said.

Callia nodded, forgetting completely about the boy as Hotch walked past. Flagging the older man, he asked, "Does the FBI Director's Office want a field assessment of Gideon?"

Hotch looked surprised again. "You could see that, huh? Well, don't worry, everything is okay."

"Hey," Henry waved the fax in the air. "This thing says your friend Charlie is dead." Callia groaned.

Henry was quiet for a second before saying, "You know, if Varda were here, she'd say, 'The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you will see.'"

"Winston Churchill," Callia smiled softly and walked away. She needed to go with Gideon to the prison.

"Is there anyone we can interview about Slessman?" asked Callia as she joined Gideon.

"The guard who worked Slessman's block was named Timothy Vogel. You might want to try him," said the warden. "He's down that way," he pointed with his baton. The moment she saw him, Callia froze.

"What?" Gideon asked, a little worried.

"The day before she disappeared, Varda said she was breaking up with someone named Timothy Vogel," Callia whispered in horror.

"Don't tell him that," Gideon said. "Don't give him any hint that we're looking for him, or he'll bolt."

Callia nodded, smiling her widest as she gave Vogel her hand to shake.

* * *

"Why are you pacing?" Yadid asked Hotch.

"Callia's in the same prison as Slessman. Prisoners tend to be violent. I'm worried she might not come back in one piece."

Yadid nodded. "Yeah, I know how you feel."

Hotch looked at him. "Then how are you so calm?"

Yadid stared at him a little surprised. "You're the FBI agent. You don't know how to deal with your feelings?"

"It'd help if I knew what I was feeling."

"Well, I don't like your job. You deal with violence every day, and I don't want that world to touch Emily."

"That world is everywhere," Hotch knitted his brows together. "I wish it weren't, but it is," he thought.

Yadid smirked. "For someone who can tell what other people are thinking by looking at their face, you aren't very good at hiding yours."

"The double chocolate chip cookies are done," Emily said, poking her head in. With one last look at Hotch, Yadid kissed Emily and they left together. Hotch stared at the shadowy window.

Callia wasn't feeling good out there, he could tell.

* * *

"Are you lost?" Vogel's voice dripped sympathy. The two women and man could feel the shallowness of it. "I can walk you guys out of here." He unlocked a door for them.

"What can you tell us about Charles Linder?" Callia asked.

"Linder?" Vogel was taken aback, but covered it well. "Oh, he was scum. He caused a lot of trouble in prison. I mean, half my job is protecting the inmates from each other, but he was something else."

"Did you protect him?" asked Gideon.

"A puny little white guy, especially in a prison like this?" Vogel looked at him like Gideon had just asked if one and one made three.

"Linder was 6' 4". Are you talking about Slessman?" asked Callia.

"I guess so," Vogel said. He opened the door and Callia dashed out, mouth wide open and gasping.

"What's wrong?" asked Gideon, following her out.

"There was a pink pleather rose on Varda's keychain," Callia chewed her tongue. "It was Varda's favorite." She pulled out her phone and dialed Hotch.

* * *

Hotch hung up, glad for the extra information, and turned toward Elle. "I need you to get a box with Vogel's name on the outside. I don't care what you put in the box. You can get a hundred advertisements for Fred's Chicken Coop for all I care. I just need it for when I interrogate Slessman," he told Elle, who nodded and left.

* * *

Henry looked at the piles of empty CD cases around him, spinning a disc on his finger. When he looked at the CD, a light bulb went off and he grabbed a paper clip.

"We've been through all the CD cases, but we've missed the obvious," he said, using the paper clip to pull out another CD.

Morgan chuckled. "You're amazing."

"Thank you," said Henry. "It's Metallica," he said, looking at the CD.

"All right, I'm an insomniac who listens to Metallica to go to sleep at night. What song could possibly speak to me?"

Henry looked at the CD. "Would you believe me if I told you that Callia loves metal?" Seeing Morgan's best, "Get to the point," look, Henry cleared his throat and said, "Try 'Enter Sandman.'"

* * *

"Should we go back outside?" Emily asked Bela.

Bela smiled thinly at her. "I prefer to deal with monsters."

Emily looked down. "I liked your show because all the monsters were made up. But people don't need to make up monsters. There are real monsters. I want to fight the real monsters with them."

"Exactly," Lauren said. "So why leave? You're too emotional to—"

Emily looked down. "You, and your awesome knowledge, can't get you hope." She stood up. "I'm getting edgy in here while they're out there."

* * *

_My friend, Officer Tyler Mendez, says that knowledge and happiness are virtually exclusive. He's a homicide detective, so I know this stuff. I work at a coroner's office, so I think I know what he means._

_In the next chapter of Tesseraction, someone says a very funny line in a not-so-funny situation._

_"I know all about you, Tim. You're at the gym five days a week, you drive a flashy car, you stink of cologne, and you can't get it up."_

_Read and Review! Or at least stay tuned._


	10. Love Story

_"Love Story," is obviously by Taylor Swift, and I picked that song for this chapter because the characters demonstrate their different kinds of love in different ways. Also, I couldn't find a song about reciprocity or replacing people, so love will have to do._

Chapter IX: Love Story

Hotch turned down the heat as Elle came over with a box. "Why are you turning the heat down?" she asked.

"Cold sets people on edge," said Hotch, knowing Callia would have already known. He entered the room and banged the box on the table so that Slessman could read the name. "We only want Vogel," he said. "You're just our tool. You see, we know all about the salesman philosophy of reciprocity. You drop the price, and the buyer feels obligated to do something for them. The same thing applies to Vogel's relationship with you. He did you a favor, so now you feel like you need to protect him. He's got you so convinced you owe him so much that you'll go to jail for him."

* * *

"Pull him over," Callia said agitatedly.

Gideon looked at her like he was humoring a child. "If we pull him over, he'll try to run."

"Look, something is wrong!" Callia argued.

"How can you tell?" asked Gideon.

"When we left him, Vogel was nervous. And look at him now. He's stopping at every light, he's going the speed limit. This is not someone who is rushing to kill and dump a body."

"Good," Gideon pulled over, leaving Callia's mouth wide open and realizing how well she had been played. "Will you do the honors?" he asked. Callia smiled and got out of the car.

"Sir, I want to see both of your hands, now," Callia yelled at the car, gun raised. "Now!"

The man complied with Callia's instructions on getting out of the car, and as soon as he was out, she slammed him on the ground. Then both she and Gideon realized this man wasn't Vogel.

"Who are you and why are you driving a red Datsun?" asked Gideon.

"Vogel asked if I'd switch cars with him, and I did," said the man, gasping in fear. "He wanted my truck."

"What's the make?! What's the make?!" Gideon shouted. ****

"Good job, genius," Morgan looked at Henry appreciatively. Henry smiled and blushed. Morgan pulled out his phone and dialed Gideon. "Gideon, Sayen's still alive. She's being tortured, but she's alive. I'm getting a live video feed on Slessman's laptop right now."

"Can you put the last twelve images of Varda up next to each other on the screen?" asked Henry.

* * *

"Hotch," Gideon said over the phone. "Sayen's still alive. But Vogel's on his way to kill her. You need to get her location. Find something, Hotch, or both girls are dead."

* * *

"See how the light bulb above her cage is moving?" Henry pointed out. "It's swinging. She's on a boat or a ship. Call Hotch, and tell him I want to know if there's been any more information on Varda," he added.

Morgan looked at him. "Gibson, she's dead. You saw that explosion. If it weren't for the airbag and Slessman being a twig, he wouldn't have lived. He already lost most of his sense of touch."

"Look, I know Varda, okay? You told Callia and Elle to trust their instincts. I'm guessing the same thing applies to me."

Morgan looked at Henry for a long while. "Dude, you are seriously in love with her, aren't you?"

Henry blushed. "Is it that obvious?"

Morgan laughed. "I'm gonna call Hotch."

* * *

'Hotch, Sayen's on a boat or a ship somewhere," said Morgan.

"Then she's got to be at a dock or pier. He wouldn't be able to send images from the middle of the ocean," Hotch said.

"Yeah, but finding out the actual location is on you," said Morgan.

"What is it you always ask Garcia to do?" asked Hotch.

Morgan smiled. "To work me a little magic." He hung up, but Hotch wasn't smiling when he walked into Vogel's room, Elle having long gone with Gideon and Callia to find the truck. He shook off this feeling of abandonment and faced Slessman.

"We have Vogel, but we don't have the girl," said Hotch. "He's telling us that it was all your idea. That even keeping the girls on a boat was your idea."

"Why are you here, then? You must be lying, or you'd just be reading me my rights," said Slessman.

"I'm not reading you your rights because I know Vogel is guiltier than you are. You have a chance of getting the death penalty, and I don't think you deserve it," Hotch said, speaking the words he thought Dulcea was most likely to say. "Now, are they at a dock? A pier?"

Slessman looked forward, seemingly in a daze. "A shipyard. Allied Shipyard…wait, who's 'they?'"

"Varda and Sayen."

"I don't know about the Asian girl, okay. One minute, I was driving. The next, there was some really old guy. It wasn't Vogel, but Varda looked like she was scared of him."

Hotch looked at Slessman and smiled weakly. "Thank you," he said. As he left the room, he remembered why he didn't like getting attached to people. It was so easy to be hurt, even when they weren't doing the hurting. Especially when the people he was attached to weren't the ones doing the hurting. He pulled out his phone and dialed Callia. "Callia, is there any old man you might know whom Varda would be frightened of?" he wondered if Varda had been molested.

The short gasp on the other end of the phone suggested she knew exactly who he was talking about before she hung up with a snap.

* * *

Callia turned to Gideon and Elle with fear and agony etched all over her face. "I—" she swallowed. She wanted to save Varda from Cailean, but she needed to be here to make sure Sayen, her loving little sister and once daughter, would be okay.

She stayed, looking for the boat, not knowing Varda was already dead, and that was the only reason Henry could no longer find her.

* * *

Meanwhile, Henry and Morgan were sitting in front of Slessman's laptop, looking at the video. They both tensed as Vogel appeared in the room with Sayen, unlocking the cage. Henry cheered as she kicked Slessman in the head and ran outside, despite having run into a wall and fallen more times than Henry wanted to wince.

Morgan dialed up Elle. "Greenaway, Vogel's in with Sayen."

"I know. I've got the area staked."

"No!" Morgan said sharply. "You've got to wait for backup. If we'd waited in Boston—"

"If I wait, Sayen will die," Elle said, not looking at him. "You told me to trust my instincts."

Sayen pulled the tape from her eyes and mouth and managed to get onto the dock before Vogel caught her. The moment he grabbed her, she screamed and began struggling.

Gideon and Greenaway were alerted by her screams, the latter aiming from behind, and the former approaching from the front.

Vogel used Sayen as a shield and Gideon stopped as Vogel's gun poked Sayen's jawbone. She looked beyond Gideon, remembering another girl's father and his terrible revenge.

"Point the gun at me, not her," Gideon said.

"Right, so then you have a reason to kill me!" Vogel spat. "You think I'm stupid?"

"I think you're an absolute moron!" Gideon spread his arms wide. Sayen's eyes rolled back into her head and Gideon's heart constricted, but then they came back and she shook her head like she was warning him not to do what he was planning to do. Gideon continued regardless. "I know all about you, Tim. You're at the gym five days a week, you drive a flashy car, you stink of cologne, and you can't get it up. Not even Viagra's working for you. You know what that tells me? That tells me you're hopelessly overcompensating, and it's not just in your head. It is physical. What did the girls call you in high school? What'd they come up with when you fumbled your way into some girl's pants, and she started laughing when she got a good look at just how little you have to offer? Short Stack?" asked Gideon. He noticed Sayen's eyes roll back and reappear again, but this time she started mouthing something. "Very little Vogel?"

This time, Sayen looked at Callia and said something. Callia stepped forward slowly until she was right next to Gideon. She looked frail, unformed, and **very** unarmed. "No, I've got it," she said. "Tiny Tim."

Vogel screamed, pushing Sayen away, and shot at Callia. But Sayen got in front of him and pushed him right into Greenaway's line of fire. The bullet bounced off her sternum harmlessly, except for the dent now in the middle of Sayen's chest. Vogel aimed at Callia again, and Elle Greenaway shot so many times, Vogel was unrecognizable.

* * *

"Are you okay?" Gideon asked.

Sayen smiled weakly. "I was scared."

"It's natural to be scared."

"I'm still scared."

"That's normal too. You wouldn't believe how many victims I've met who had fallen apart. You're holding up pretty well." A little too well, in Gideon's opinion. It was almost as if she had done this before.

Sayen nodded and looked around. "Callia's gone."

Gideon looked around. "She is," he was astonished. This girl almost dies to save the woman's life and the woman doesn't even stick around to check to make sure the girl is okay. "I'm sure she'll be back."

Sayen leaned back on the stretcher. "She knows that Cailean took Varda away. She should have gone earlier. She stayed because she loved me enough to see that I get out of here. You don't know Callia. She wanted to leave to get Varda, but she stayed. She loves me."

Gideon shook his head and chuckled. Sayen was strong. She could survive this. "I was wrong," he apologized. "You're a survivor, not a victim," he corrected.

Sayen looked at him once, smiling softly, and fell asleep.

"What kind of report is the Director looking for about Gideon?" asked Morgan, observing from further away.

"There's concern about whether he's ready for field work," Hotch watched too. "You know, Hailey and I were looking at baby names and she suggested 'Gideon.' Do you know what that means in Hebrew?"

"Mighty warrior," Henry said, trying to hail a cab. "Appropriate."

Hotch swallowed his disapproval at this friend of Sayen's leaving right as she was critically injured. "What would you tell the director?" he asked Morgan instead.

Morgan nodded at Gideon. "Gideon saved her life," he answered. "That's good enough for me."

"Alright, we're ready," said EMT Allison Cameron. She looked at the group of people gathered together. "Who's riding with her?"

Henry turned momentarily, about to say yes. But he changed his mind. Sayen was in good hands, but Varda was not.

"I will," Hotch said. He climbed in. Sayen looked up with large, warm eyes at him. The conversation they may or may not have had inside that ambulance will forever remain a mystery.

But not to us.

"Hailey and I are having a baby, and when we were picking out names, every name she suggested, well, Charles," he gave an example.

"You thought Manson," Sayen nodded.

"She said Jeffrey," Hotch looked to see if she'd understand.

"You thought Dahmer."

"Henry," Hotch leaned back, testing her knowledge.

"Um, I know a Henry, so I'm kinda drawing a blank here," Sayen admitted, smiling a little at her own silliness.

Hotch chuckled and spoke quietly, "That's the way it should be."

* * *

_Aww, how cute was that? Sorry, I just think Hotch and "dad" in the same sentence and I get squealish, if that's even close to a word. It probably isn't. Anyway, this addition means that Humanizing Horatio is going to be undergoing major changes in the near (hopefully) future. Anyway, I hope you liked this. I tried to stay true to the characters, which is a lot easier when you actually see the episodes as opposed to just reading a recap. Well, I hope you continue to read my stories in the future._

_Next time on Tesseraction: "Guys, please, you're vampires. To other humans, you don't exist. And I'm an alien from another planet. I'm not supposed to be here either. Except I accidentally brought a person back to life, so I am. Any questions, or are you going to help me save the universes now?"_

_Oh, and by the way, the serial killer Sayen couldn't identify was Henry Lee Lucas, who is believed to have killed between four and three thousand people. Why the huge discrepancy in number? Lucas confessed to multiple murders, then recanted (took back) his confessions, then confessed to MORE crimes, and so on. He was convicted of eleven homicides, sentenced to death for one of them, had his sentence commuted to life in prison by the then-Texas governor George W. Bush, and died of heart failure in prison when he was sixty-four._

_Wow, what a cheerful way to end a cute chapter. I sincerely apologize for anyone who is going to have nightmares from reading this._


	11. Are You Alright?

_"Are You Alright?" is this sweet little song by Lucinda Williams, that fits the chapter because someone does get hurt and someone does ask, "Are you alright?"_

* * *

Chapter X: Are You Alright?

"I'm not sure I like this anymore," Lauren told Emily as they shut the door behind them. "I heard…I heard that they were planning to switch Sayen for Varda."

Emily frowned. "What gives anyone the right to say one life is worth less than another?"

Lauren was silent at first, but then she said, "I think that's why they did it. Sayen is more emotional. Varda's emotional too, but she doesn't let what she feels trump her logic." She frowned, "Sort of like the two of us girls."

"You'll go into the field of science and make millions and be like Callia, strong and smart," Emily said, looking up from her crouch against the wall.

"And you'll be the ghostbuster who has a loving family and not much else," Lauren looked down from her lean against the same wall.

"I guess it depends on what you want," Emily said. "Hey, look!" she pointed. "It's a shooting star!"

Lauren looked at it. "Yeah," she mumbled. "A shooting star."

Another Tardis was landing.

* * *

"Sayen!" Varda burst into the room. "Sayen, he's got me!" Varda screamed as bony hands grabbed her shoulders and thrust her back out into the inky chasm of space between universes.

"Varda!" Sayen got up from her bed and ran across her home, back in Silver Springs. "Varda, I don't know how to get to you!" She heard a faint voice in the back of her head, snickering about how cheesy this dream was. But when Varda sprouted fangs and black wings, the voice shut up.

Silence truly is golden, sometimes.

Sayen savored the thought as she awoke in her hospital bed, Callia beside her, looking worried.

"I couldn't find her," Callia said immediately, turning away from the window to her."

"And you won't," Sayen said, "because she's caught between universes right now. But don't worry," she added quickly, seeing Callia's panicked face, "I know how to get there."

* * *

"You're vampires who don't die unless you get ripped apart and the pieces are burned, am I right?" Sayen asked.

"Yes," Carlisle said, tone suggesting that he was afraid of what she was asking for.

"I need you to help me. I don't know if I can do this, but the prophecy calls for you," Sayen took out her phone, upgraded courtesy of Bela, and called Callia in another universe so Belinda could come pick the vampires up. When the blue box just appeared, the vampires stared. Sayen opened the door with a roll of her eyes. "Guys, please, you're vampires. To other humans, you don't exist. And I'm an alien from another planet. I'm not supposed to be here either. Except I accidentally brought a person back to life, so I am. Any questions, or are you going to help me save the universes now?"

* * *

"What else does the paradigm tell us?" Sayen asked.

"It's not working now. I don't have control of it, so it doesn't have to answer me anymore," Bela growled.

"What do we do?" Callia asked.

"For starters, we can find the alien that's been terrorizing Seattle," said Ben.

"I thought that was a vampire," Edward frowned.

"Well, it isn't," Ben said. "I've studied it a little bit. It feeds off orgasmic energy by doing, well, you-know-what with virgins."

"So what? We send Calix to fight this guy and we go out for pizza," Mara shrugged.

"Um, Mara, I'm still a virgin. I know it sounds silly, but-"

"I don't think it sounds silly at all. I think it's kinda cute," Mara looked up to find Calix threatening her with her own sword. "But it's nothing that I'll ever mention again," she added quickly.

The humans from our reality (yours, dear reader) were collapsed on the ground, laughing.

"Allow me to rephrase: what do we do to control the Paradigm?" Emily asked, wheezing.

"We can gain temporary control if we find the codes to freeze it for a while," Bela said.

"The codes to freeze the Paradigm for two minutes are scattered around Belinda's interior," Ginny said.

"How do you know what's going on? I never know what's going on," Sayen said. When she looked at her, there was a jolt of electricity.

"Well, you weren't here from midnight to 6 researching it," Ginny turned away so she wouldn't feel that electricity again. Lauren and Yadid blushed, and that didn't escape Andres's notice.

"Was he the first?" Andres asked, motioning for Yadid to leave the room and shut the door.

"And the only," Lauren replied. Sayen winked. Lauren got the joke.

"He's older than you by almost two decades!"

"Does age matter?"

"And everything he does will be publicized. I wish you could show more judgment," Andres sounded jealous, and he hated it.

"Andres, I—he wasn't like this before."

"Are you in love with him?"

"I think I am."

"Were you careful?"

"Andy-"

"Don't you 'Andy' me! You won't get out of this. You had sex with a man you didn't see fit to tell me that you were dating!" he froze here.

"And why do you care?" Lauren looked triumphant. "I only said what I said to make you jealous, which, by the way, behold my success."

"Oh," Andres looked down. "I guess I'll be leaving then."

"Oh, no you don't," Callia dragged him back. "We need every available person to cover every section of Belinda to find those codes, pronto!"

* * *

"She expects us to do the work while she just directs us like we're her slaves. Who does she think she is, a CSI?" Emily muttered.

"It could be worse," Yadid said. "We could be in the boiler room. It's so hot and stuffy in there."

"Yeah," Emily laughed. "Poor Sayen. Callia should really be nicer to her." She fell silent for a long time, flipping the mattress over.

"What's eating you?" Yadid asked.

"Why did Lauren pick you to get Andres jealous? Is there something going on between the two of you?" Emily tried to keep her tone light and teasing, but failed miserably.

"Lauren and I are friends, that's all," Yadid said firmly.

"Okay," Emily nodded. She reached to put the mattress back on the bed the same time that Yadid was doing the same. Their hands brushed and a jolt of electricity to rival the one between Henry and Sayen ran through both of them.

"Let me help," Yadid said, not taking his eyes of her. Wordlessly, they put the mattress back on the bed. When it was on, Emily sat on it and patted an area for Yadid to sit on. He did, and they started kissing.

* * *

For what seemed like the billionth time, Bela took off his jacket and fanned himself.

"Why don't you just keep it off?" Sayen asked, irritated.

Bela shot her a dirty look, but kept scraping the rust off the pipes. Then his scraper hit something, and he blew the layer of dust off so he could read what it was. "Sayen, I've found the codes!"

"Great. Where? Show me," Sayen demanded.

"Oh, but I can't get to them. I put in a security thing for it because I was afraid someone might steal it," Bela looked downcast.

"Callia said you have a blue thing that can open up locks. Why don't you use that?" Sayen asked.

Excitedly, Bela took out his sonic screwdriver to melt the metal pipe. He opened up a huge hole and managed to get the piece of paper with the instructions on it, but he forgot the trap he had set up in case someone got the instructions without inputting the password into the computer. The pipe rumbled, then a wave liquid splashed over the two of them. Sayen screamed and Bela just blacked out.

* * *

The only thing Sayen was aware of was that her entire body was sticky and stiff. She couldn't seem to move without moving the sheets along with her. It was very irritating. "Callia!" she called.

The person with its head on her belly raised its head. "Are you awake?" Ginny sounded relieved. Sayen's heart constricted.

"I'm fine," she said. "I feel great. I feel like I'm gonna die. What the heck happened?"

"You were drenched in acid," Ginny said. There was a hint of tears in her voice, which weren't visible in the darkness.

"I'm alive. It's all okay," Sayen said, patting Ginny's hair.

"I thought you died," Ginny said. Her breath brushed across Sayen's face. Sayen realized just how little time they had actually spent together and jammed her lips to Ginny's without a second thought. Ginny spent a peaceful night with her head on Sayen's chest.

* * *

She didn't know where she was, but it wasn't anywhere she had ever been before. Everything was so amazingly bright that she should be blind, but she saw perfectly. She saw, with exceptional clarity, the man standing on the rock, a look of shock and pain that blinded her more than the light could ever hope to, and everything motherly in her ran forward to try to assuage his pain. She didn't worry about him seeing her, so she wasn't too shocked when he saw her, but she was confused about the look of shock on **his** face.

"Who are you?" he asked. "How did you survive?"

"You survived too," she saw his body. The clothes on this man were the same as the clothes on Bela before he was covered in acid, and they looked like they were.

"Go see a therapist, okay? That was probably traumatic," Sayen meant the acid shower, but the genuine worry in her voice could've fitted any situation. The man simply nodded as he entered the blue box and left a very confused Sayen to stand there, hearing the last strains of a song she only just realized she was singing.

* * *

"That was a beautiful song," Luna said when Sayen was awake again. "What was it? Three months and I'm still sober? Were you ever an alcoholic? You don't have to be ashamed, you know."

"I've never drank before, except brandy, and that was during a toast," Sayen said. She patted her bottle of Ritalin inside her pocket. It was the secret to her weight loss, her hyperactivity, the occasional tranquility when she truly had ADHD. Varda had prescribed it, and now Sayen realized just how much she missed her friend. She knew beyond a doubt that whatever she had with Henry would have to go.

"Luna, can you tell me how far along we are with the Para-dig-um?" Sayen asked. Ginny and Hermione were lying in a heap on a nearby sofa chair, stirring when they heard "Paradigm."

"Bela found some prophecy about the outcome," Luna said.

"Okay, so where's Varda?" Sayen asked.

"Why ask Luna when I don't even know the answer?" Hermione asked.

"She was put in Ravenclaw for a reason," Sayen explained like Lockhart might have explained and looked at Luna so that the girl was either sure she had Sayen's complete attention or was getting scared.

"She's with Freya," Luna said calmly. Callia appeared beside her in an instant, breathless.

"Freya? Did you say Freya? Where is Freya, my darling?" Callia bent down and asked, tears streaming unabashedly out of her eyes.

* * *

_Did she say, "darling?" You bet she did! And if anyone's wondering why Sayen's been having sex with everything that moves, it's not because she's channeling Captain Jack. She was sexually abused by her adoptive parents, Samantha Silver and Ezra Lowenstein, and people who've been sexually abused as children tend to be more promiscuous. I am very close with a foster family where several girls follow this pattern. I know boys who have been abused too, but they are less likely to speak to me if they have, leaving me with no information about boys. So I will leave this message with you readers:_

_**Sexual abuse MUST end. Please, if you or someone you know is being abused, please call Child Protective Services!**_


	12. Same Mistake

_Yes, folks, I have committed the unforgivable sin. I have used a song by James Blunt as a chapter title. May hellfire and whatever else the Bible says fall on Earth, or whatever they do. I've never actually read the damn Bible._

Chapter XI: Same Mistake

"She's in the warehouse," Sayen answered.

"Which warehouse?" asked Callia.

"Keefe's warehouse."

"Where's Keefe's warehouse, dearie?" Callia asked.

Sayen got a strange expression on her face, either because she knew where the warehouse was or because Callia was acting so out of character. It may have been both, because she walked to the console and typed in an address. There were the usual groaning sounds of a Tardis defying all laws of physics, and then there they were, in the safe house of another gang that Sayen had ties to.

"Can you pull up the Paradigm too?" asked Callia. "It predicts things and I am just _dying_ to know if I die during this."

Sayen opened her mouth, made a sound, then closed her mouth again. It would be next to impossible to change the mind of Calantha Reid when she was being reasonable. She went to the computer, and let out a confused sound between a cough and a whimper. "Bela, what the hell is a para-dime?"

Bela shook his head and went over to pull up prophecies as Sayen walked to the door, anything but eager to see the future.

"NO!" Callia shrieked.

Sayen paused at the door and turned around, alarmed. "I thought you'd be all over this, the whole saving Safara part."

"Can you pull up the Paradigm too?" asked Callia. "It predicts things and I am just _dying_ to know if I die during this."

Sayen opened her mouth, made a sound, then closed her mouth again. It would be next to impossible to change the mind of Calantha Reid when she was being reasonable. She went to the computer, and let out a confused sound between a cough and a whimper. "Bela, what the hell is a para-dime?"

Bela shook his head and went over to pull up prophecies.

Callia pointed shakily to the Paradigm. "S-some prophecies are a bit weird. I mean, you've proved them wrong time and again. but this is the Skasis Paradigm. There's nothing in it that doesn't come to pass," she swallowed back her tears.

"Then you're reading it wrong," Carlisle said worriedly.

"I wish. But it's very clear. The double-elemental will face the Master to retrieve Varda's soul, and she will die," Bela said.

"So…that's it, huh? My time's up. I know the drill. One elemental dies, another must be found. I wonder if there's gonna be two, since I'm two elements," Sayen turned to Callia. "Will you teach them, or will there be someone else?"

Callia was on the verge of tears. "Say-"

"Does it say how he's gonna kill me?" Sayen hiccupped. In a smaller voice, "Is it gonna hurt?"

Mara reached out to comfort her, but Sayen shrugged off her hand. "Don't touch me!" A moment of silence, then, "Would you have told me if I hadn't gone running to the door?"

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to," said Bela. "I hoped there was some way around it."

"I have a way around it," Sayen drew herself up to her full height of 4 feet, 4 inches. "I won't go."

"It's not that simple," Bela said, frustrated.

"I'm making it that simple. I quit, I resign, I'm fired, whatever! Find someone else to stop the Master from using Varda's soul to start his taking over the world."

"I'm not sure if anyone else can. All the signs indicate-"

"The signs, Bela? Oh, geez, read me the signs, tell me my fortune! You are **so** useful, sitting there with all your books! You are **so** much help!"

"I know," Bela looked like he was about to cry.

"I know this is hard," Edward began.

"No you don't. You're never going to die," Sayen spat.

Callia stood up, eyes blazing. "You think Bela or Edward want anything to happen to you? You think I could stand it? We just have to figure out a way to-"

"I already have. I quit."

"Sayen, if the Master rises," Bela warned.

"I don't **care**, Bela! I'm 16 years old and I don't wanna die!" Sayen gave a dry sob.

"You're already dead," Rosalie said, standing. "You did a transfer with me, remember?" she looked at Sayen seriously.

Sayen broke into a smile.

"Transfer? **Transfer**?! You did a **life** **transfer**?" Callia demanded. "Of all the stupid, stupid things to have done…remember what happened the first time you screwed with life?"

"I thought—"

"No, you didn't! You could have died!" Callia shouted. "You were already weak! You **should** have died!"

"Wait a minute," Sayen looked like someone had lit a light bulb over her head. "A transfer? A transfer can kill someone?"

Callia looked at her and laughed. "Are you ready to go?"

Sayen took a deep breath. "I guess."

They say that the people who try to kill themselves and fail tend to want to live the most. We only know that because they've survived. We will never get the opinions about life from those who've succeeded, but the fact that they might have spent their last moments wishing they were alive is very sad. Still, after nearly dying, people tend to want to live afterwards, and I mean live, take risks, not just breathe. But you haven't clicked on this story to read a lecture on the value of life.

Sayen, Henry, and Callia burst inside the warehouse. Varda's body was trapped in a bubble with Ken's body. Sayen tried to retrieve the bubble, but it didn't work. The realization of what had happened slammed into her like a bolt of lightning. She hadn't put Ken back inside the bubble when she left. She had taken the bubble with her. But there were footsteps that made Callia whirl around for a glimpse of the Master.

It turned out that she had already had more than a glimpse. Standing beside them was Cailean.

"What do you want?" Sayen asked, resigned. That made Callia break down entirely, because throughout this whole adventure, Sayen was the energy, egging them on. Sayen was so numb from feeling like she had disappointed everyone that she didn't even help Callia. Instead, a miniature version of Callia patted her shoulder, placating.

"I want a life for a life. I can do a life exchange. Who wants to volunteer to die for one of them?" Cailean cackled.

Sayen recalled how she almost died because she had expended so much energy trying to bring Ken back (that was only two months ago? It felt like decades). Surely, with Cailean's age and all, he would die if he performed the spell. But just as she was about to step forward, Henry surprised her by doing that instead.

"I will," he said in a strong voice.

By Goddess, had the whole world gone mad? Sayen wasn't up for doing anything, Callia's iron will had rusted to the point of being obsolete, and Henry was the bravest of them all.

"By all means," said Cailean. It was all over in two seconds. Cailean and Henry were both on the ground and Varda was up and running. The bubble had burst, but Varda wasn't running for Henry.

"What are you doing?" Sayen asked, since Callia wasn't about to do anything buy hug Freya for a while.

"Cailean didn't leave you all those clues by accident, and I know what he was trying to do. He was trying to manipulate the Multiverse so that, when he saved it, he would become master of it. He even has all these," Varda gestured at the necklaces. "They allow you to go anywhere in time and space with a blast of elemental power only the specific elemental can handle. Each one has a specific name. The one dotted with bixbite on it is called the Starla and it's yours, the one covered with opal is called the Starlett and it's also yours since Ken's dead, the smooth gold one is the Star and it's Eddie—"

"Actually, Eddie gave it to Henry," Sayen interrupted.

"Whatever. The one with the amethyst band is called the Starlo, Sam's, and the one with the coral at the end is called the Starlou and it's Calix's. I'm already wearing mine, and what I'm about to do is send Henry back to be reborn in this universe. He doesn't exist here, so I can bring him back, but I can't bring him back as Henry because then the other universe will fall apart. So what I'm doing is make another person. The Multiverse will be confused, so you can make Ken someone else in the meantime," Varda said seriously.

Sayen's heart beat fast. "Really?" she asked, afraid of a denial.

Varda gave her a long, hard look. "I wouldn't joke about something this serious, Sayen," she said. "Now I need you to just sing, not hum or think the lyrics." Varda took a deep breath.

"I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance…"

Varda sniffed as the words to "I Hope You Dance" flowed out. When had she started crying? But she watched as her ring with the onyx stone on it and it expanded until Henry could've fit in quite easily. "I'll name him Spencer," Varda said with a single glance at Sayen. "Spencer Reid."

Sayen held her ring up too and started singing. Three guesses what she sang, and the first two don't count.

"I'll name him Adam. Adam Rush. And his middle name will be Keefe," Sayen said, thinking that suit him perfectly.

"Adam Keefe Ross being born," said a robotic voice. Sayen cursed. Teenagers did tend to talk faster than their ancient counterparts.

* * *

"Thank you," Callia said thickly as she put her arms around Freya. Just as soon, she had to take her arms off and reach for tissues.

"You're welcome," Sayen deadpanned. She put her head in her arms and cried. Varda patted her absently while fingering her necklace, as she was apt to do when she was not fully here.

"I'm the Queen of Universe #4? So what's my job? Planet patrol?" she asked suddenly.

"Planet patrol. I like the sound of that," Callia said. "It sounds like the name of a TV how. Alright, your job is to patrol the planet for a while."

"Why me?" Varda asked blankly.

"I know it comes with great responsibility, but-"

Varda dismissed Callia with a wave of her hand. "I've had more responsibility, but I just don't want to have power if that means I'll come up with stuff people will kill for. Anyway, does the Paradigm tell us where to input our codes for the universe?" asked Varda with a hint of exhaustion. Then she got a sort of pinched look. "Never mind, I know where we should go. We have to go back to Rainbow Valley, and I know exactly who's going to let us pass into the Rainbow Valley City Hall."

* * *

"You've been acting off for a while," Sayen said to Remus. "Are you okay? Well, that's a stupid question. I already know you're not okay. Let me say this: can I help?"

"Not unless you have a cure for lycanthropy."

"So you're afraid of hurting somebody, and that's why you won't even come near us to help us, is that right?" Sayen retorted.

"Listen, I shouldn't be around people. You have no idea-"

"No, **you** have no idea, you coward. People are pretty much multiversal, so stop running!" Sayen yelled. She got up and ran to Bela, stopping him with a, "If you really did kill your whole planet, please see a psychiatrist. Varda's pretty good, but if you want to see Callia again, you should call upon Sophie Miller," before running into a closet with Luna. They managed to keep their clothes on, miraculously.

"I guess this is goodbye," Bela said to Callia, the words Sayen flung his way in private still sticking in his brain. "Unless you want to come with me?"

"No," Callia looked straight at him. "Some things aren't meant to be seen or experienced by a human. My little girl nearly died during this trip, and I don't mean Freya." Tears glimmered in the back of her eyes. "I heard her talking about how I'm so cold and distant. I worry about her all the time. I know how strong she is and I knew she would wake up. She's spent her whole life with a bad support system, So until I can work on being human, I can't work on being superhuman," Callia touched his cheek. "I'm sorry," she kissed his forehead and pursed her lips. "I guess I'll see you at the double Tennant-Hansen wedding."

"You will," Bela nodded. "What about Ben?"

"He wants to stay with Angelica," Callia chuckled.

"Young love," Bela shook his head.

"Hopefully, someday we'll be talking about old love," Callia said. They slowly slid their hands apart and she waved her reluctant goodbye.

* * *

_Well, that's just about it, peoples. I've made this story longer because I decided it was too short to have any character development. This was thrown together by my ex-girlfriend Chelsea Giovaninni, her mother, and me. Thank you, Mrs. and Miss Giovaninni!_

_Next chapter, the last one, someone gets to say "Nothing screams classy more than the stench of urine." And I guarentee it isn't Doc-Boy._


	13. I Hope You Dance

_It wasn't the best day when I first wrote this chapter. My ex-boyfriend had just come out of jail after serving time for something he did to me. This was sort of my inspiration to myself. It doesn't get any more uplifting than "I Hope You Dance," by Lee Ann Womack._

Epilogue: I Hope You Dance

"This is the high-security Hall of my city? Geez, nothing screams classy more than the stench of urine," Sayen wrinkled her nose as she went inside the local PD Office and put in the codes, trying to be nonchalant and not cry.

Main: the lovebirds disappeared.

Bri: Ben watched as his chance to go home disappeared. He didn't particularly want to go back to heartbreak, so he just stood there, faint smirk on his face, as he watched the shining green hole close up.

Orn: Bela closed the door so that Callia couldn't see his pleading face.

Har: Ginny, Remus, Luna, and Hermione waved goodbye.

Zei: the Cullens and Hales waved goodbye for the last time.

Lu: her own universe was safe at last.

"Everything's back to as normal. At least, as normal as life can get," Varda said cheerfully.

"Yup, and right in time to start school again next week," Sayen said.

"Explain to me again how that's a good thing?" Mara asked.

"I'm drawing a blank," Sayen admitted as she looked at the night sky. A shooting star darted across it. "Make a wish," she whispered.

"I wish for a vacation," Mara said. "The thermostat in the Tardis was broken. I want to go to school someplace warm."

All the girls looked at each otehr and at their respective Stars. It was Varda who spoke first, heart brimming with excitement.

"So, where and when do we go?"

* * *

"Mara, what would you say if I told you that I've signed up for Animal Cops with Varda?" Sayen asked, straddling the bed two days later as Varda stood beside her, shaking her head and slapping her forehead against her head with sighs.

"I would ask why I wasn't asked to join too."

"What if I told you that the Animal Cops we're joining is in Miami?" Sayen asked with a huge smile.

"I would ask where my ticket is."

Sayen groaned and Varda laughed. "You owe me ten dollars, Sayen!"

"Can't you at least say 'bucks' like everyone else?" Sayen grumbled as she reached into her tiny purse that could barely hold a lipstick.

"Well, people used to use that word as slang for a buck's skin, buck here being a male deer. They used to use them as currency," said vegetarian Varda.

Sayen nodded. "Ah," she said simply. "Are you packed?" she asked suddenly in a high pitch.

"Yeah," Varda motioned to her bags.

"Great, 'cause I need someone to help me."

The girls laughed. ****

Sayen checked her phone for any missed calls. She had been missing for two weeks and John Walden had not called her even once? They had been such good friends, but now Sayen was feeling just a little bit betrayed. She stood before the airport and waited for Callia to join her. She smiled as she saw Callia, Varda, Mara, and Freya. It made them look more normal if they arrived at Miami by plane, so Bela had take the liberty of using his unlimited credit to hire them a private jet..

"Thanks, ma'am," Callia said, taking the vodka from the stewardess and raising it to Varda's diet ice tea. Sayen raised her root beer float, and Freya raised her orange juice box. "To a brand new chapter of our lives, hopefully without tesseract action," Callia said.

"To a brand new opportunity to live right," Varda said.

"To my mother," Freya smiled.

"To Disney World!" Sayen cheered. They clinked glasses and took a deep, long gulp. To Disney World indeed.

* * *

_Dear Magenta,_

_I'm feeling pretty weird, writing in the same fancy curly writing that Varda always uses. If it weren't for the fact that I can't usually read her writing, I wouldn't be learning how to write like this so that I can read what I'm writing. Although I usually can't read my writing anyway, so it doesn't matter much._

_It takes three hours to go from Silver Springs to Miami. Isn't that just stupid? Oh well, at least I get a good view for those three hours. Everyone else is sleepy because they haven't had any coffee today, but I'm wide awake! It's been such a topsy-turvy year that I can barely rest. Just thinking about losing Ken hurts. I'm starting to think that Callia was right about love. Not that love doesn't exist or that the ones you love always leave you first, but that love hurts._

_I could've DIED! The fact that I didn't hung by a very delicate thread. No matter what the fairytales say, the heroes usually die, the bad guys who like themselves more than anyone else usually find the way to get out and unleash more evil, and the compassionate ones suffer the most because they can toil and toil, but they'll never solve a problem as well as they'd like to. While I'm being depressing, I might as well be homesick too._

_Home is like that slice of pie my mother would always order from that restaurant. It was the best piece of pie I'd ever had, and I can't seem to find it again. And then Mommy died and I can't find the restaurant anymore. My new house has better wallpaper and a better dishwasher than it ever did when my parents were alive, and it doesn't matter how often I look at old family photos, I still get homesick. I know that the mythological home probably is just that, but I still want to live there. I'm looking for my family and my home like look at street signs for restaurants, but it doesn't help because I lost the map and the restaurant's probably burned down a long time ago. So I've got nothing but a sour flutter in my stomach and a sad acidic taste in my mouth. Oh well._

"Callia," Sayen said in a very small voice. "Does it ever get easy?"

"You mean life?" Callia didn't really ask. She knew Sayen well enough not to have to.

"Yeah. Does it ever get easy?"

"What do you want me to say?" Callia asked.

"Lie to me," Sayen said, leaning against her pillow.

"Well, it's all incredibly simple. We always catch the bad guy, the problem is always fully solved, and nobody good ever dies," Callia said tenderly, patting Sayen's back. "What do you think?"

"Liar," Sayen smiled through her tears. She leaned on Callia's arm peacefully before she closed her eyes. She opened them again after what she felt was a moment later because there was a horrible noise. She looked around, but it was completely dark and she couldn't see a thing except a small patch of night sky.

A shooting star darted across it, bringing with it familiar memories. But for the life of her, Sayen couldn't figure out what they were.

_She was scared and the other girl, the one who looked like her was hurt and the little boy who reminded her of her father was hurt too…._

* * *

_I hope you enjoyed the story. I know I didn't. Anyway, the point of this story is that everything happens for a reason, and every disaster is just a more forceful way to realize your full potential. Sayen killed Ken and became a better, more powerful person, mentally and magickally, for it. This is a huge furtherization of plot. Is furtherization a word? Probably not. Anyway (I should stop using that word), please review after reading, even if it's just to say that I should burn myself to death, witht my stories. Thank you!_

_A little hint for the next story, Horatio Caine is getting knocked down to size._


End file.
